This book aims to explore counting as an often-overlooked research tool
for qualitative projects. Building off of a research method invented by
the author in 1986 called counting schedules, this volume provides
instruction on how to use counting not only to enhance fieldwork
results, but also as a form of analysis for extant field notes,
interview results, self-reporting diaries or essays, primary archival
material, secondary historical texts, government sources, and other
documents and narratives, including fictional work. The author
buttresses his discussion of counting schedules with extensive examples
from previous fieldwork and research experiences, drawing on three
decades of anthropological experience in Canada and the Pacific Islands.
Counting as a Qualitative Method provides ethnographic researchers
with the answer to the number-one question asked by qualitative and
non-qualitative researchers alike: How can a qualitative researcher know
his or her results are reliable?