A New Qualitative Methods Section

Abstract

In the fall of 2002, over 1,000 members of the American Political Science Association—including 28 former Association Presidents and seven former APSR editors—signed a petition to launch a new APSA Organized Section for Qualitative Methods. The proposed section would sponsor training and research focused on the several branches of methodology associated with the qualitative tradition. The goal will be to promote an integrated understanding of these methods and their relationship to other branches of methodology, including the quantitative tradition. The new section would complement the activities of the existing Political Methodology Section, seeking to develop productive avenues of cooperation.