Examining the social realities of qualitative research with children: context, messiness and multinational comparison

The Introduction sets the context for the book, its objectives and contributions to the fields of qualitative research methodology and child well-being research. It discusses the background for the book, the Children’s Understandings of Well-being (CUWB) project, and how each chapter provides a critical reflection from different researchers involved in the study on their fieldwork experiences. The book, therefore, provides an honest appraisal of the realities of doing qualitative research, drawing upon the appraisal of a group of experienced researchers from different disciplines and different parts of the world. It outlines the valuable lessons that can be learned from discussing the realities of doing research, including critically reflecting on challenges, setbacks, unexpected turns and ‘failures’ that occur in fieldwork. The introduction outlines ways in which the research community can productively engage in these reflections, including the importance of researcher dialogue about their fieldwork experiences, the necessity to reclaim the ‘messiness’ of social research, systematically reflecting on research practice and understanding the context dependency for research. The Introduction concludes by outlining the book structure and individual chapter contributions.