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#RPVBooks I brought this book with me to London since it’s light and small and I need reading material while on the London Underground (or Overground as it may be the case). Perhaps the best book in this genre, short, simple and chock full of great advice. Perhaps I say this … 
… because so many of his 21 tips I have either put them into action, written about them or simply resonate with my own practices. Admittedly, it took until I came to London to REALLY read it.
The table of contents should be enough to entice you to read it. A few snippets…
The table of contents should be enough to entice you to read it. A few snippets…
… that resonated with me because yes, I’ve written about them on my blog and Twitter threads:
1) Write everything.
I learned this lesson the hard way, in NYC, last month. You need paper and pen at all times or a digital method for recording.
2) Keep findable records.
1) Write everything.
I learned this lesson the hard way, in NYC, last month. You need paper and pen at all times or a digital method for recording.
2) Keep findable records.
#RPVBooks I love @jenniferbussell ‘s work. We are both fellow @EGAPTweets members and share many methodological interests including field experiments and shadowing. I had read her second book (this one) but I wanted to wait until I had my own physical copy to write about it.
This isn’t Jennifer’s first book (I also have that one and I’ll tweet about it in a few minutes). I love how repeatedly, throughout the book, Dr. Bussell explains what the puzzle is and what her core research questions were. This was important as I don’t work in this area.
For those of us who don’t work in this field, providing schematics and definitions is key. The core or Bussell’s question focuses on why and how constituency service makes patronage democracy work. Her theoretical and empirical chapters lay out her argument quite clearly.
#RPVBooks I had read some of @adam_m_auerbach ’s work before and I sort of knew that his book would be amazing and it did not disappoint. As a scholar of urban governance and public services provision, Auerbach’s book hits all the sweet spots: informality, comparative politics.
I had read a few of Auerbach's articles, but the one that hit me like a brick wall was this one: link.springer.com/article/10.100…
Because it really showed multiple ways of using formal and informal archival materials. Excellent work. So, I knew more or less what I was going to get.
Because it really showed multiple ways of using formal and informal archival materials. Excellent work. So, I knew more or less what I was going to get.
Auerbach’s argument is that networks of party workers are able to put more pressure on governments, which enables them to demand better public services/public goods (you can read the book summary in this photo). It’s a great comparative politics study with mixed methods.
#RPVBooks sometimes I forget Jonathan Skinner’s brilliance. But as my reading notes of his book on participant observation indicate, the man is brilliant. In “The Interview: An Ethnographic Approach” Skinner edits a four part introduction to interviews as part of ethnography.
I’m a political scientist and a human geographer who uses ethnography as one of a suite of qualitative methods within a mixed methods framework. Obviously my training colours what I think and how I use what I read. I say this because reading this book shocked me.
Skinner writes in the introductory chapter that at a conference on anthropologists and the interview, someone told him: "I don't do interviews in my ethnographic fieldwork".
To me, it is possible to conduct an ethnography without interviews. But they *feel* intrinsic.
To me, it is possible to conduct an ethnography without interviews. But they *feel* intrinsic.
#RPVTipe I feel somewhat embarrassed to not have come across this book earlier in my career given the many, many books I’ve read on ethnography. Basically, Spradley does what I want to do with my own books: walk the newbie through the ropes: how do you capture data, analyze, etc
Having so many languages to choose from, Spradley chose to speak the truth. You can, in fact, learn ethnography and participant observation from the start, as a total newcomer. And his book helps the reader do exactly that.
Spradley writes in a very accesible style #RPVBooks
Spradley writes in a very accesible style #RPVBooks
I found Spradley’s book not only incredibly insightful but also very didactic. Diagrams, tables, figures and guidelines all contribute to making it an easy choice for how to conduct ethnography, analyze the data y write up the results.
I need a hashtag to be able to find all my reading notes of the books I buy and read. So this is a #RPVBooks thread on Verlyn Klinkenborg’s “Several short sentences about writing” (book cover in the photo attached to this tweet).
An incredible book, extraordinary.
An incredible book, extraordinary.
The core of Klinkenborg’s approach can be summarized as follows:
1) all the writing advice you read is regimented and can feel asfixiating
2) focusing on the sentence and the paragraph as the core units of writing allows you to break free from that feeling of constraint
1) all the writing advice you read is regimented and can feel asfixiating
2) focusing on the sentence and the paragraph as the core units of writing allows you to break free from that feeling of constraint
3) writing can be fostered, encouraged, motivated and unleashed (my words) by NOTICING.
Klinkenborg’s approach is different from Stephen King, Anne Lamott, Eudora Welty and many other writers who write about writing.
Klinkenborg suggests that noticing and deconstructing …
Klinkenborg’s approach is different from Stephen King, Anne Lamott, Eudora Welty and many other writers who write about writing.
Klinkenborg suggests that noticing and deconstructing …
