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This volume explores the use and relevance of qualitative methods for the study of quality of life. It analyzes the role of qualitative researcher and the role of the context and the culture in quality of life studies. It presents the use of qualitative methods in real projects carried out in specific fields: geography, health, community studies, labor life and yoga. Finally, the book proposes the use of mixed methods that are considered as the third methodological approach in social research.

The main purpose of using qualitative methods is to understand what it means for participants to be involved in certain events, situations and actions. Such methods help understand the context in which participants act and the influence of that context on their actions. The decision to use a particular methodology implies a philosophic, theoretical and political decision. Qualitative methodology constitutes an approach that is essential for understanding people´s experiences of well-being and discovering new issues related to quality of life.

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Chapter 1: The Relevance of the Use of Qualitative Methods for the Study of Quality of Life; Graciela Tonon.- Chapter 2: The Qualitative Researcher in Quality of Life Field; Graciela Tonon.- Chapter 3: The Role of the Context and the Culture in Quality of Life Studies; Lia Rodriguez de la Vega.- Chapter 4: Integration of qualitative and quantitative methods in quality of life studies; Graciela Tonon.- Chapter 5: Qualitative Methodologies in Geography, Contributions to the Study of Quality of Life; Claudia Mikkelsen and Josefina Di Nucci.- Chapter 6: Qualitative Studies in Health Related Quality of Life: the Case of Young People Living with HIV/AIDS; Milton Décima.- Chapter 7: Children´s quality of life in the Caribbean: a qualitative study; Maria Dilia Mieles Barrera - Graciela Tonon.- Chapter 8: Qualitative Studies of Young People´s Quality of Life in Urban and Rural Areas; Lucia Zanabria Ruiz.- Chapter 9: Young people´s rural quality of life in the Colombian Andes: a qualitative study using triangulation; Antonio Lopez Lopez.- Chapter 10: A Qualitative Study about Yoga Practice in Quality of Labor Life; Lia Rodriguez de la Vega.

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"Tonon and her colleagues demonstrate how the application of qualitative approaches to the Quality of Life field provides a crucial intervention in understanding quality of life. ... The book provides a different kind of scientificity and rigour to understanding quality of life. ... The book is a presentation of what Tonon describes as a ´new horizon of development´. ... The book therefore materially provides new perspectives both in its scholarship and its commitment to developing scholarly practice." (Tobia Fattore, Applied Research in Quality of Life, Vol. 10, 2015)

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