Engaging Crystallization in Qualitative Research: An Introduction

Drawing upon her multi-award-winning research and book using crystallization, author Laura Ellingson presents the first-ever step-by-step guide to employing this cutting-edge methodology. Exploring Crystallization in Qualitative Research provides: thorough grounding in the field of qualitative research; answers to the relevant epistemological questions that arise when crossing inscribed methodological boundaries; detailed steps for design and planning; explication of the process of creating a multi-genre text and/or series of texts; suggestions for improving both social science and creative analytic writing; and strategies for targeting publication outlets. While other books have explained how to write the "new ethnography" and autoethnography, and still others have described how to conduct grounded theory in more traditional, social constructionist, and postmodern, frameworks, this is the first work to date that has bridged these worlds in a "how to" book that celebrates each on its own terms, acknowledges inherent limitations of any genre, and explains how to integrate them through crystallization.