Handbook on Focus Group Methods in the Social Sciences

This comprehensive Handbook reimagines focus groups as synergistic modes of inquiry with unique affordances and multiple pragmatic functions. Leading social science researchers from around the world discuss innovative inquiry strategies across three domains: exploring the frontiers of focus group research, using multimodal communication strategies to expand potentials and also focus group research, and deploying focus groups to promote social justice and global sustainability. Expert contributors introduce novel research strategies for analysing how various forms of collaboration becomes formalised into official focus group activity and the effect this has on group decision making. They examine how grounding focus group research in critical theory (e.g. Jurgen Habermas, Jacques Derrida, Paulo Freire, Gilles Deleuze, Donna Harraway, Judith Butler) can elevate group dialogue and drive meaningful progress toward social justice. Contributors also discuss what happens when AI is integrated as an active participant in focus group conversations and what this could mean for the nature and functions of focus group research in post-foundational, digitised times. Seasoned scholars and students in education, sociology, political science, communication studies, and other social science disciplines seeking to advance their understanding of focus groups and how to integrate them into their qualitative research practices will greatly benefit from this Handbook. Researchers and practitioners in other fields will similarly benefit from its pragmatic recommendations and informative insights.