Welcome to the Companion Website

This site is intended to enhance your use of Situational Analysis, Second Edition, by Adele E. Clarke, Carrie Friese, and Rachel S. Washburn. Please note that all the materials on this site are especially geared toward maximizing your understanding of the material.

The publication of the Second Edition of this book signals the success of situational analysis (SA) as a new method in the grounded theory tradition. This edition adds two new co-authors, Carrie Friese and Rachel Washburn, early situational analysts. Together the authors have not only updated this volume, but also refined and clarified SA as a method based on their own experiences using and teaching it transnationally for more than a decade and on valuable feedback from readers and adopters of the first edition. SA is grounded in the concept of “the situation". While sharing grounded theory’s roots in pragmatist philosophy, Chicago School ecologies, and symbolic interactionism, SA is a distinct analytic approach also braiding in additional theoretical foundations. The authors demonstrate the uses of the three kinds of maps to frame and analyze the situation of inquiry: situational maps; social worlds/arenas maps; and positional maps. The Second Edition brings the theory and practice of SA up to date, with much more practical guidance for carrying out research studies using SA, and more illustrative maps and figures.

The new SAGE Companion Website for Situational Analysis offers a wide array of resources to support using Situational Analysis in the classroom or on one’s own as a scholar.

  • SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS MAP TEMPLATES are downloadable and fill-in-able templates for making the major Situational Analysis maps. They are based in MSWORD and PowerPoint to make them accessible to most scholars.   
  • SAGE ONLINE SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS ARTICLES with hyperlinks
  • EXEMPLARS OF SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS PROJECTS include a list of Situational Analysis Exemplars by Discipline and Specialty (with links to abstracts), a list of Situational Analysis Exemplars by Mapping Focus (with links to abstracts), and additional Situational Analysis exemplars.
  • VIDEO AND MULTIMEDIA ON SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
  • TIPS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING SA including helpful hints and strategies for both.
  • FAQS AND CONVERSATIONS (from the 1st edition)
  • SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS REFERENCES LISTS (downloadable)

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge Adele E. Clarke, Carrie Friese, and Rachel S. Washburn for writing an excellent text and developing the materials on this site.