In particular, the book focuses on: issues of observation, analysis and validity in qualitative research; the theoretical underpinnings, methodological consequences and practical applicability of major traditions of qualitative research, including ethnography, symbolic interactionism, conversation analysis and ethnomethodology; the centrality of language as the medium of communication of the subjects of qualitative research, and the ways in which such communication can be studied - through the analysis of interviews, texts and transcripts.