ESA
European Sociological Association
Qualitative Methods Research Network
President: Dr Shalva Weil (Israel)
3rd MID-TERM CONFERENCE
ADVANCES IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH PRACTICE
Cardiff University, Wales, UK September 4th-6th 2006
ABSTRACTS
Laura S. Lorenz
The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, USA
Using Narrative Analysis of a Patient’s Photographs and Interview Text to Understand Living
with Traumatic Brain Injury and Facilitators and Barriers to Recovery from the Patient’s
Perspective
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a serious problem affecting not only injured individuals but also their
families and communities. The lived experience of people with TBI can inform peers, families, providers,
and policymakers of issues related to living with this injury and facilitators and barriers to recovery from
the patient’s perspective. In an exploratory study intended to inform a dissertation proposal, an individual
with TBI took photographs of living with her injury and the people and circumstances that have helped and
slowed her recovery, and discussed her photographs with the researcher. The analysis of her photographs
and interview text involved using three types of narrative analysis—looking at the details of an individual
photograph, as suggested by Howard S. Becker (1986); structuring the accompanying narrative into its
discourse units, as modelled by James Paul Gee (1991); and grouping her series of photographs into plot
categories representing problem, action, and resolution, as proposed by Elliot G. Mishler (2004). These
analyses provide a glimpse of the impact of a traumatic brain injury on an individual’s perceptions of self
and her feelings of connection (and disconnection). Structuring the interview text into its discourse units
appears to hint at the usefulness of the photographic image in helping the patient to articulate living with a
brain injury and to sum up her experience. Grouping the study photographs and their text excerpts into plot
categories brings out movement in the participant’s healing over time and reveals her hopes for the future—
information that was not gleaned by analyzing a single photograph and its interview data.
References
Becker, H. (1986). “Photography and Sociology,” in Becker Doing Things Together (Evanston, ILL:
Northwestern University Press), pp. 221-271
Gee, J. P. (1991). A linguistic approach to narrative. Journal of Narrative and Life History/Narrative
Inquiry, 1, pp.15-39
Mishler, E. (2004). Historians of the self: Restorying lives, revising identities. Research in Human
Development, 1(1&2), pp. 101-121
Jonathan Scourfield, Ben Fincham & Susanne Langer
Qualiti, Cardiff School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, Wales, UK
A Qualitative Sociological Autopsy of Individual Suicides
There is a long-standing and familiar debate within sociology about approaches to the study of suicide, with
well-known contributions from Durkheim, Douglas and Atkinson, amongst others. Most sociological
research on suicide that has been published in recent years has been quantitative and broadly in the
Durkheimian tradition. There is relatively little qualitative research on suicide from any academic
discipline. This can perhaps be explained both by practical and ethical considerations and by the dominance
of medical and (quantitative) psychological research within the field of ‘suicidology’. Within psychiatry and
psychology, there is a tradition of ‘psychological autopsy studies’ for investigating individual suicides. This
approach has tended to focus on psychopathology and the identification of risk factors. Although the study
of individual suicides has tended to be dismissed by sociologists as irredeemably psychological, the
presenting authors will argue that there is much to be gained from the study of the social context of suicidal
individuals. The presentation will focus in particular on methodological aspects of an ongoing qualitative
sociological autopsy study of individual suicides. The study comprises documentary evidence from
coroners’ case files (suicide verdicts) and interviews with family members, friends and professionals. There
will be discussion of the use of multi-modal qualitative data as evidence and of ethical dilemmas associated
with qualitative research on suicide.
Zelda Tomlin, Jenny Donovan, Isabel de Salis & Merran Toerien
Quartet (Qualitative Research to improve recruitment to randomised controlled trials)
Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, UK.
Integrated Research: methodology to address the research-implementation gap and the
consolidation of qualitative research in applied fields
Health services research (HSR) aims to improve the delivery of health care services through evidence-based
changes in practice and policy. HSR is applied research: both research questions and findings are targeted at
specific problems often defined by policy-makers and practitioners. The place of qualitative methods in
HSR is increasingly accepted, but there is a continuing danger of marginalisation on the basis that findings
are ‘soft’ and rarely result in changes to practice. The Quartet programme has developed the integrated
research methodology to address both the research-implementation gap and the consolidation of qualitative
research in applied fields like HSR. Quartet expands the pioneering work of the ProtecT study in attempting
to improve recruitment to randomised controlled trials (RCTs) - a long-standing problem. Traditional
qualitative research methods such as interviewing and more recently adopted methods such as audio
recording interactions (between recruitment staff and patients) are used to understand the recruitment
interaction and explore the perspectives of staff and patients. Through thematic and conversation analysis,
conceptual and interactional problems are identified. Next, solutions are developed and - crucially ‘applied’ through individual and group training for recruitment staff. Following this, recruitment rates are
monitored to see whether and what impact the intervention has had. The data collection, analysis, feedback
and monitoring cycles are repeated until no more improvement is observed. Integrated research, by
encompassing implementation and monitoring of research-based strategies as an iterative and integral part
of the research, crosses the divide between conventional research and participatory action research. While it
sits within a conventional ethnographic paradigm, it makes use of the step-wise implementation practices of
action research. It is hoped that integrated research will enable better value to be derived from qualitative
methods in HSR. The paper will discuss the process of and the opportunities and challenges presented by
integrated research.
Maggi Toner-Edgar
Contemporary Applied Arts, Cumbria Institute of the Arts, UK
Thinking Caps. Examining the Relationship between Experiential Learning and ‘Intelligent
Making’
This research was an 'exposition' to expose the process of practice, linking the hand, heart and head, with
fashion/textiles in the form of millinery. Educators, practitioners and students need to give greater
recognition to the importance of the role that reflection holds within the process. It was written as an
outcome of a PhD entitled ‘An Investigation into the Learning Experience of Textile Designers and Makers:
Examining the Relationship between Experiential Learning and ‘Intelligent Making’. This research
promotes greater awareness of how to operate as a reflective practitioner.
In recent years with many more art and design practitioners carrying out post-graduate research degrees,
reflexivity is becoming an emergent methodology. Research conclusions were drawn from the qualitative
data taken from the process, sketches and reflective comments of practitioner observation, captured through
video and audio methods. The intrusion of verbal language can be a disadvantage to the visual process.
Although practitioners find this process complex to articulate verbally, this research encourages
practitioners, through reflection on experience, to gain intuitive understand of their own personal tacit
knowledge. Critical reflection in the making can communicate socially, through objects, materials and
processes.
Repetition of a similar experience without any signs of progression in thought process or purpose is a form
of regression. Reflexivity changes our approach or perception of an experience or issue. The reflective
process itself is a form of theory linking hand and mind makers laboriously and often meticulously recreate
their own initial response to their initial concept for their audience to experience. Drawing and making can
effectively progress concepts and stimulate reflection. By encouraging deeper reflective methodologies in
craft, we will understand better the value of the reflexive process. Through textile craft, we can examine our
changing roles and contexts, the developing nature of the craft process as an emergent reflexive research
methodology can advance and enhance our understanding of the underlying sociological and emotional
benefits.
Recording my own practice using a digitally compiled sketchpad as a reflective tool, provided an
explanation of the thinking processes involved. The sketchpad was collated in a story telling structure, it
incorporated digital images of my hats and a series of mind maps and concept maps, alongside a reflective
journal narrated over each image, which explained the context and linked thought process. I recounted this
journey through reflective journaling and millinery practice, in order to recreate the intuitive personal
knowledge in the mind of the maker, as three-dimensional thinking caps.
Nicole Witte & Gabriele Rosenthal
Centre of Methods in Social Sciences, Qualitative Research, University of Goettingen
Biographical Case Reconstruction and Interaction Analysis
How to Combine Different Types of Data and Different Methods?
In our paper, we would like to present a design (which is in the process of development), and also first
empirical findings for a combination of interpretive methods, i.e. biographical case reconstruction with
interaction analysis. First, we reconstruct the biography of professionals with biographical narrative
interviews. Then videotaped encounters are used to document and reconstruct the present course of
individual interaction. Furthermore, we plan to analyze the history of the relationship between the
professional and his or her client with thematic narrative interviews.
We would like to illustrate this approach using a study on doctor-patient-relationship conducted by Nicole
Witte. The main question of this research focuses on the development of doctors’ patterns of interaction and
the reproduction and transformation of these patterns in present doctor-patient interactions.
The aim is to examine the interrelation between the different levels or parts of the process: biography,
history of the interaction and the present courses of interaction. The first step, according to an abductive
procedure within the methodology of objective hermeneutics, is to look at these different levels using
specific methods of data-collection and analysis. The second step is to combine the results of these
separately made inquiries.
In addition to presenting this design for a combination or triangulation of different methods, we will
concentrate on the sequential analysis method for video recorded encounters. While the proven methods for
biographical and focussed interview analysis (cf. Rosenthal, Oevermann) are well known, the method for
analysis of interactions recorded on videotape requires further research and development. The aim here is to
use the abundance of information within these data without becoming lost among the many details.
Maria Giatsi
Occupational Therapy, Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Emerging tools in qualitative research methods: asynchronous online discussion and the use of
WebCT
The use of the Internet in research as a gateway to information sources is well established. However, its
potential as a dynamic and interactive research tool is only beginning to be exploited.
This paper outlines the process and pertinent methodological issues relevant to the creation of an internetbased online discussion board as part of a larger study that explores the role of occupational therapists when
working with premature children. WebCT, the software platform employed, is relatively well known as a
distance learning tool but in this study it has been adapted to provide a multi-threaded online discussion
board. On this, participants could electronically post their comments as responses to the topics under
discussion or to the input of fellow participants. By this means, interaction was facilitated and important
research data generated.
This innovative research approach raised several methodological issues and it is these that form the content
of this presentation. Factors such as the logistic challenges associated with the designing of the site, choice
of the discussion timing (synchronous of asynchronous), participant group dynamics, role of the instructor
in facilitating “online interaction”, and finally pertinent ethical issues will be discussed.
Gevisa La Rocca* & Luca Giuliano**
* Dipartimento di studi su Politica, Diritto e Società, University of Palermo, Italy
**Dipartimento di Contabilità nazionale e analisi dei processi sociali, University of Rome “La
Sapienza”, Italy
Methods of qualitative analysis and virtual communication places
Study on the evolution of telework in Italy along with a dedicated mailing list
Communication pattern and message analysis connection was highlighted by Holsti, claiming that “all
communication is composed of six basic elements: a source or sender, an encoding process which results in
a message, a channel of transmission, a detector or recipient of the message, and a decoding process”
(Holsti 1969, p.24).
The relationship among qualitative analysis methods, communication patterns and communication
technologies is made up by a bundle of interdependencies: the qualitative analysis provides the tools aimed
at reading, synthetizing and interpreting the texts transmitted throughout web territories and its analysis
gives back information about the linguistic evolution and birth of new social phenomena.
The study of the messages included in 1996 and 1998 mailing list record on Telework proposes a logicalsemantic approach for a combined qualitative/quantitative treatment of digital texts with the purpose of
mining information starting from the analysis of the lexicon.
Telework development, inevitably, interweaves the issues relevant to information society. This seems to be
the most suitable topic in order to rebuild how the social function of an asynchronous tool developed
historically.
Objective of the analysis is to develop an approach able to mine the features of opinion changes on telework
from texts, so as to provide information on the method used and on the value of discussions occurred inside
an asynchronous communication tool such as the mailing list.
Yet the analysed corpus has peculiar characteristics: it is redundant, it is filled up with “information noise”
and spelling mistakes. Furthermore the used language is hybrid -ranging from formal to informal- and
makes the analysis utterly complex. Taltac is the software for the treatment of quantitative analysis of
lexicon, and Spad-T in the synthesis and information display.
Francesco Pisanu
Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Italy
Expanding the Cyber-Ethnography from the On-Line to the Off-line and vice versa: How to
Study "Virtual" Groups when they Seem to Become "Real"
Looking at the present social and cultural status of the Internet it is not surprising there is a rapidly
increasing body of ethnographic studies on computer mediated communication and interaction, but also
related spaces that are highly mediated and interactive, like virtual groups.
Over the last three decades hard distinctions have been made between on-line and off-line virtual groups
features by computer mediated communication researchers, although activities occurring off the Internet
have been largely neglected. Recent empirical insights are leading researchers towards a cyber dialogic reassembling of the social in which people are never entirely “on” or “off” the web.
The aim of my work is to describe methodological changes during virtual groups on-line towards off-line
translations ethnography, to catch a third way between being on-line & off-line. This third way is near to
Donna Haraway’s “cyborg” idea, in which the person is part human and in part machine. From this point of
view the ethnographic practices seem to be always in part on-line and in part off-line, even when the
research focus is just on physical settings or “virtual” ones.
My paper will be organised as follow: a first part in which I describe traditional virtual-ethnographer toolkit
such as collecting e-mail procedures, data-log recordings, non-obtrusive observations, electronic interviews
and “virtual” field notes; in the second one I introduce “the bridges” between on-line and off-line,
represented by face-to-face in-depth interviews about group members on-line experience, and by off-line
group members behaviours participant observation, especially when they meet face-to-face all together.
In the closing part I discuss some possible merging between virtual and face-to-face data collection and
analysis, trying to catch a cyber perspective studying virtual groups interactions. To sustain my
argumentations I use my PhD thesis work field data, coming from a virtual work group cyber-ethnography.
Anne Ryen,
Agder University College, Norway
Spaces of Slowness of Fast Tools: Accomplishing Sense in the E-mail Interview.
The topic of this paper is the e-mail interview. Despite arguments of the newness of Internet, I argue that
the basics of accomplishing sense of lived experiences online remain unaltered. As a paradox, using the email for interviewing, spaces of slowness unfold in the process. It is this slowness or social space that
portrays the meaning-making process that in oral talk is taken-for-granted or alternatively, left unnoticed.
After an introduction of the Internet as a computer-mediated-communication (CMC) in research, the paper
launches critique (pros and cons) of the e-mail interview.
Using data from a long qualitative e-mail interview, I will then discuss how the members accomplish the email interview throughout the different phases of the process from establishing contact till the tricky end.
My focus is on the collaborating work of the researcher and the researched.
Using the e-mail for interviewing puts the Inter-Action or collaboration at the forefront. Despite sharing
traits with regular talk, there seems to be alien elements of the communication. Still, I argue that members
use their everyday skills in doing this work. How this is done can be seen from analysing e-mail data
(written by the members themselves).
I will also show that familiar ways of analysing qualitative data apply to online interview-data.
So, using the Internet for research as we find it in the e-mail interview can be argued to represent an
innovation or an “advance” in qualitative research practice. My interest focuses on how participants use the
virtual field as much as with what they do with it.
Susan Hansen
Division of Psychology , School of Social Sciences, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham,
UK.
A Living Breathing Corpus? Some Issues in Discourse and Conversation Analytic Work with
Internet-Based Data
This paper addresses some methodological issues raised by attempts to conduct discursive and conversation
analytic work with Internet-based data – or forms of synchronous and asynchronous computer mediated
communication (CMC). The Internet arguably represents a searchable corpus of ‘ongoing conversations’ on
any number of topical social issues. As such, qualitative researchers are making increasing use of this
information-rich corpora in conducting studies of such topics as online hate crime, breast cancer email
support groups and pro-anorexia websites, on text-based data drawn from fora such as email discussion
lists, bulletin boards, websites, blogs and chat rooms.
Internet-based data is well-suited to forms of qualitative analysis that are based upon the computation of
frequencies and other descriptive and summary statistics, and to topic-driven forms of inquiry – such as
content and thematic analysis. However, CMC is, according to some (e.g., Schegloff, 2004) intrinsically
unsuitable for forms of analysis which also attend to the ongoing flow of talk-in-interaction, such as
conversation analysis (cf. Sacks, 1995; Schegloff, 2005) and forms of discourse analysis (cf. Edwards,
2006) that are attentive to such matters. Nevertheless – although not without certain modifications – some
conversation analytic work has been done with synchronous chat (e.g., Vallis, 2002; Hansen, 2003) and
discursive and membership categorisation analysis have also been employed on a number of forms of
synchronous and asynchronous CMC (e.g., ten Have, 2000; Giles, 2005; Hansen, 2006). This paper will
explore some of the issues raised by such attempts to apply methods designed for the analysis of face-toface (or telephone-mediated) talk-in-interaction to synchronous and asynchronous forms of computermediated talk – which is, arguably, still approachable as a variant of talk-in-interaction.
Pirjo Nikander
University of Tampere Centre for Advanced Study, Research Institute for Social Sciences,
University of Tampere, Finland
The Art of Transcription and Translation
One central characteristic of current qualitative research practice is the use of extracts from transcriptions of
naturally occurring everyday or institutional interaction. Analytic traditions like conversation analysis,
discursive psychology and the wide range of research under the wide umbrella of ‘discursive’ all rely on
and produce transcripts according to their own conventions, level of detail and procedure.
Discussion and dispute on transcription is crucial given that empirical research based on working with
transcripts, particularly conversation analytic work, sees transcripts as a central means of guaranteeing the
publicly verifiable and cumulative nature of its claims and findings. This paper aims at providing an
overview of some of the discussions on the good practice of producing transcripts. The main focus of the
paper, however, is on the largely overlooked question and on the additional complications that follow from
having to translate and produce transcripts of data originally in another language for an English speaking
and reading audience.
The paper claims that the predominant, written-in-between-the-lines notion in most texts on transcription is
that of an English speaking academic, working on data from conversations between native speakers of
English, and subsequently presenting his or her analysis to other English speakers. The main argument is
that for the growing number of researchers working on interactional data in languages other than English,
additional complications arise. Translating data extracts is not merely a question of ‘adopting’ a
‘transcription technique’ but rather includes a range of practical and ideological questions of the level of
detail chosen in the transcription, and of the way in which the translations are physically presented in print.
This paper looks at the range of choices scholars working with translated data typically make when
presenting their work. It looks at the constraints set by academic publishing and journal practice, and, as a
whole, opens the question of transcription and the art of translation to a wider and more detailed discussion.
Sookhoe Eng
School of Healthcare, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
A Qualitative Study of UK Chinese with Diabetes: An Appreciation of the Methodological Issues
Involved.
The UK Chinese are at high risk from diabetes, and it is therefore critical that we understand their helpseeking behavior in relation to the disease. An appreciation of the importance of cultural embeddedness can
provide insights into what shapes understanding and subsequently life with diabetes. Chinese
communication patterns, including the prevalence of “indeterminate space” during conversation(s), the
ambiguity in the use of “yes” and “no”, and the use of “code-switch” by Chinese migrants, demonstrate that
social interactions are tightly interwoven with cultural values. Significantly too, issues around illness
perception and the function of medicine are deeply embedded in the Chinese philosophy of health and
illness, and sensitivity to customs and traditions is crucial to ensure research validity. This paper deals with
the importance of cultural knowledge, experience of working with overseas Chinese, and fluency in Chinese
and Cantonese, when researching the ‘hard to reach’ UK Chinese community. Recommendations
concerning methodological issues are offered for the conduct of future study with this population.
Jan K. Coetzee
Department of Sociology, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa
Qualitative Methodology and Researching Social Suffering
The paper departs from the logic and epistemological bases of qualitative methodology in as far as it uses
narratives to study different forms of social suffering. It argues that language - the way human experience is
voiced - provides the most important tool or mechanism to gauge social suffering. Apart from language the
paper touches on the need to consider the non-verbal dimensions of social suffering. These include images,
metaphors and models related to a broader culture, as well as the social and political or educational
experiences and processes that shape narratives on social suffering.
Drawing on my earlier research into life histories I refer to different ways in which devastating experiences
contribute to social suffering. To illustrate I use fragments of the narratives of former long-term political
prisoners, people from squatter/slum areas, street children, and women living with HIV/AIDS.
The narrative fragments engage with questions such as:
• What role do state policies and bureaucratic practices play in depersonalising the memories of suffering
among former political prisoners?
• To what extent do the narratives of suffering of people situated in a specific economic system - such as
street children and people in squatter areas - represent elements of routinised misery? Are their being
portrayed as pictured spectacles by the media have an impact on their own accounts?
• When women living with HIV/AIDS attend support centres, in what way are their memories and
experiences of suffering shaped by clinical and educational processes?
The discussion of these questions will hopefully throw more light on an understanding of the use of
narratives in qualitative research.
Pauline Savy
Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Australia
Suffering in Silence: The Problem of Bestowing Meaning on Unspeakable Illness
The focus of this paper comes out of my ethnographic study of late-stage, aged dementia sufferers in three
Australian long-term care settings. In this research, much of the raw, empirical material I gathered falls
outside ordinary conventions for talk and interaction and subsequently, outside regular, rational social
science frames for what constitutes data, and for knowing and interpreting the other. Despite their profound
disabilities, I regarded these marginal individuals as central informants in my study. However, similar
studies and methodological options for representing such others are rare. My search for a suitable, analytical
frame served mainly to substantiate the ordinary and disciplinary realities created by words. It highlighted
methodological tensions between the creativity of ethnographic storying, and writing as testament.
Nervously, I wrote my way out of muddle and doubt, inspired by Richardson’s (1995) explication of
writing as method and source of knowing, and Kristeva’s (1982) conceptualization of abjection.
In this paper, I take a second look at the methodological opportunities and limitations for writing an account
of the liminal worlds of individuals who are unable to speak for themselves. Drawing from the work of
several narrative theorists (Frank 1995, 2001; Hydén 1997; Kleinman 1995; Mattingly 2000; Riessman
2004), I consider concepts and typologies for writing about unspeakable illness and for elaborating the
interpretive work of making meaning of what seems to be meaninglessness, human existence. My concern
in this endeavour is to apply such frames with a light touch so that the open-ended meanings and
humanness in suffering and ambiguity are not buttoned down and stifled within disciplinary categories
(Kleinman 1995; Frank 2001).
References
Frank, A. (1995). The Wounded Storyteller: Body Illness and Ethics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Frank, A. (2001). Can we research suffering? Qualitative Health Research. 11 (3) 353-362.
Hydén, L. (1997). Illness and narrative. Sociology of Health and Illness. 19 (1) 48-69.
Kleinman, A. (1995). Writing at the Margin: A Discourse between Anthropology and Medicine. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
Kristeva, J. (1982). Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, New York: Columbia University Press.
Richardson, L. (2000). Writing: A method of enquiry, in Denzin, N and Lincoln, Y (eds), Handbook of
Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 923-948.
Riessman, C. (2004). A thrice-told tale: New readings of an old story in Hurwitz, B. Greenhalgh, T. and
Skultans, V. Narrative Research in Health and Illness. Malden, Mass: Blackwell Publishing 309-324.
Mattingly, C. (2000). Emergent narratives. In Mattingly, C. and Garro, L. Narrative and the Cultural
Construction of Illness and Healing. Berkeley: University of California Press181-211.
Marie Buscatto
Laboratoire G. Friedmann, Université de Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne – CNRS, France
Ethnography of Artistic Work
Some Epistemological Contributions and Advances
Artistic work is difficult to apprehend and is not often studied despite its immediate charm. Often defined in
vocational terms, it constitutes a difficult object for social sciences to study. Filled with passionate feelings
and subjective implications, artistic work makes distanciation an uneasy job for the researcher. Since artistic
activities are fluid, scattered and solitary, how may one identify its collective norms, principles and
organizational
realities,
its
« world
of
art »
as
would
Howard
Becker
say?
Our objective would be here to show how ethnography, when used to study artistic activities and practices,
enables to produce innovative knowledge on worlds of art. We would also like to show that it might bring a
new light on contemporary phenomena such as gender dynamics or social psychologisation in our modern
society.
This presentation would be based on an epistemological analysis of our own work in the French world of
jazz. We will try to show that some of our key sociological results would not have been developed had we
not used ethnography. This analysis will be systematically related to other recent ethnographic works led in
different artistic worlds – theatre, literature, painting, movie making and classical music.
Our guess is that a renewed and mastered use of ethnography in the study of artistic work might bring new
theoretical and empirical thinking in sociology.
Maggie Kusenbach
Department of Sociology, University of South Florida, Tampa, USA
The Question of False Consciousness:Locating the Roles of Politics and Theory in US
Ethnographic Practice
In recent years, debates among various factions of US ethnographers engaging in different styles of data
collection, analysis and writing have intensified. Disagreements occur over the roles of politics and theory
in the ethnographic research process. In this context, politics is often understood as the contributions of
ethnography towards changing the system and improving the lives of the disadvantaged. While all
ethnographers generally value the importance of sociological theory, practitioners disagree over how it
should be applied to, and developed through, their research practice.
A frequent catalyst for the existing disagreements is the issue of “false consciousness,” more precisely the
idea that research subjects do not fully understand (and even help reproduce) the systemic conditions that
victimize members of their society, often including themselves. Depending on one’s convictions, the
question becomes whether ethnographers have an obligation to deconstruct the false beliefs of their research
subjects, or whether one is obliged to simply represent “member’s meanings” without taking an evaluative
stance. The question of false consciousness thus deeply separates the, in my words, “critical ethnographers”
from the “grounded ethnographers.” While this opposition does not encompass all variants of ethnographic
research in the US, and while most ethnographers will adopt some sort of intermediate position, it helps to
better understand the current debates.
This paper, first, provides a critical comparison of these contrasting perspectives in ethnography (grounded
versus critical), focusing on the roles of politics and theory in ethnographic inquiry, and on the question of
false consciousness. Second, I discuss in detail the implications of these understandings for ethnographic
methods and methodology. Besides providing an overview of an ongoing methodological debate in the US,
the goal of the paper is to inspire all ethnographers to more precisely reflect on the roles politics and theory
play in their own research and writing, thus tackling issues they might not have fully explored in the past.
Ross Koppel
Sociology Department, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medicine, University of
Pennsylvania
What Do We Mean by Medication Error? Negotiating Mistakes and Reality
Medication errors are usually conceived as medically discernable facts, but actually reflect a negotiated and
negotiable series of interactions. Qualitative methods provide a way of understanding what we call
medication errors in ways that explain the social construction of the phenomena, the ways physicians
negotiate order, and the way medical science arbitrates definitions and perceived causes.
Missing from the medical discussions of medication error is an awareness of the negotiated ontology of
medication errors. This is not to say that physicians are naïve about the ambiguity of medication error or of
their information. Daily, they are obliged to make consequential decisions with what they painfully know to
be inadequate information about the mix of diagnoses, test results, treatment options, and indeed, medical
science itself. But of concern here is that the profession is based on a belief that medication errors are a
specific concrete reality. They acknowledge that it may be very difficult or impossible to discover that
reality, but that reality, once discovered, is clear.
Perhaps in response to its pre-scientific background, medicine embraces a positivistic/scientific perspective
that cannot easily process a social construction perspective. Physicians, thus, accept the art/uncertainty of
medical practice but view the underlying biochemical, electrical, mechanical processes as based on
knowable scientific truths.
Adding to the complicated reality of medication errors is the awareness that they are a significant cause of
harm and death and that most errors are unknown and unknowable. That is, if physicians knew they were
making prescribing errors, they would fix them; most of the medications do not cause notable harm; and
most patients are elderly with multiple problems, thus obscuring the effects of many medication errors.
Also, the negotiation of cause (another element in this process) is entwined in the process where the
physician is only one part of the event: Errors are also made in transcribing, dispensing, administering,
ingestion, and monitoring.
Not surprisingly, also, the method of discovery strongly affects the types of errors identified. Reviewing
patients’ medical records (charts) reveals some types of errors – including “potential errors” that may have
been stopped later (i.e., by a pharmacist or nurse before administering the drug). In addition, if the
diagnosis (diagnoses) is wrong, the process of chart review is probably faulty. On the other hand,
observation of the patient reveals other errors not ascertainable from chart reviews, but will miss errors
prevented by nurses or pharmacists.
Another element in the process is the location where the physician writes the prescriptions. If prescriptions
are written in a hospital where other clinicians are available, discussion and consultation often occur—
literally negotiation and interaction among the participants. If, on the other hand, prescriptions are written
in an isolated office, or via a distant computer terminal, such interaction is less possible. However, some
forms of computer ordering systems interact with the physician as he/she is writing the order, advising of
dose guidelines, cheaper alternatives, known allergies and drug-drug interactions. Physicians, however,
overrule 75% of these computer suggestions, introducing another form of negotiation even before the orders
are submitted.
Christoph Maeder* & Dr. Eva Nadai**
*Pedagogical College for Higher Education, PH Thurgau, Kreuzlingen, Switzerland
**University of applied science of Northwestern Switzerland, Olten, Switzerland
Negotiations at all points? An Ethnographic Approach to the Reflexivity of Interaction,
Organization and Discourse
The concept of negotiated order originating from symbolic interactionism is a prominent theorem in
qualitative research. The idea of actors shaping their social world through negotiations rather than being
“institutional dopes” has been fruitfully applied in many fields of sociology. But the concept has also
evoked criticism for being too loose, too voluntaristic and, above all, too narrowly focused on interaction,
thus neglecting structure and macro social processes. Our paper will address this latter point. On the basis of
empirical data from our ethnographic research project on the enforcement of the entrepreneurial self we will
argue that the concept of negotiation is useful to reflexively link interaction, formal organization and the
wider social context. With the example of three large Swiss business companies, we will focus the topic of
“performance” as a means of control and a prime legitimation for the organizational status order. We will
examine the organizational practices in regard to “performance” as an instantiation of the norm of the
entrepreneurial self as proposed by discourse analysis. Negotiation is the operation by which performance is
construed as an objective fact. Once a fact, it then results in respective treatment of employees thus
positioning them within the organization order. In this way negotiations construe and reshape structure.
However, while individual positions can be negotiated, neither the necessity or legitimacy of determining
performance nor the norm underlying the whole operation are negotiable – they are taken-for-granted
knowledge beyond debate. Finally, the institutional form of negotiations, namely periodical employee
appraisals, is structurally homologous with a religious confession, which induces individuals to explore and
improve their selves according to certain norms – in the case at hand according to the ideal of the
entrepreneurial self. Thus, the macro-social discourse is internalized by individuals and becomes effective
in everyday life. Yet, we can observe distinctive variations of beliefs and practices concerning performance
in different organizational contexts. Ethnographic fieldwork thus reveals both the processes and the local
outcomes by which an overarching discourse is translated into practice.
Adital Ben-Ari, E, Buchbinder & G Enosh
School of Social Work, University of Haifa, Israel
Agenda, power and construction of knowledge in qualitative interviewing
How can we think about the relationship between informants and researchers in terms of agenda, power,
and the construction of knowledge? The present presentation attempts to conceptualize the framework
within which such relationship can be understood.
We claim that when studying socially or culturally sensitive issues, each of the parties comes to the research
interaction with hidden agenda of their own. Specifically, the researchers have some assumptions and
judgments based on their moral convictions regarding the researched phenomena (e.g., the informants, their
lives, their behavior and their value systems, etc.), while the informants have their own agendas regarding
how they would like to present themselves to the researcher and the research audience, their moral stands,
their lives, and others they are involved with.
With regard to situations in which an encounter takes place between the researchers and the informants in
in-depth interviews there are two alternatives. First, the researchers and the participants may hold similar
notions about the issue in question. Second, they may hold two inherently different notions about the
question at hand.
With regard to the first alternative, when studying battered women for example, researchers and participants
may hold similar social agendas with regard to violence and the meanings of its experiences. In such cases,
researchers and participants are working together in a cooperative manner. This would lead to agreement on
part of the interviewees as far as researchers' interpretations. However, with regard to the second
alternative, when studying male batterers, for example, the researchers can not avoid taking a moral stand
with regard to intimate violence, which would lead them to inquire about violent acts, including motives
and desired outcomes and processes that are associated with violence. Even if the interviewees hold similar
moral stands, it would lead them to construct their stories in a desired way, thus minimizing, denying, or
negotiating the meanings of their acts. Such situation would inevitably lead to conflicts in the construction
of reality in spite of the declared moral stand shared by both researchers and informants. In such situations,
rather then cooperation, the research endeavor becomes conflictual and the interaction may take the form of
power struggle over the construction of experience and its meaning. Then, the hidden agendas of both
researchers and participants became the central issue that shapes the dynamics. The suggested presentation
will elaborate on these issues with regard to knowledge construction and the ways in which researchers may
deal with such conflicting situations and the steps they need to take in order to preserve ethical standards in
qualitative research.
Joost Beuving
Department of Social Research Methodology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam (NL)
The Ethnographer's Voice. Towards an Auctorial Perspective on Representation
Representation is a long-standing epistemological problem in ethnographic enquiry: with whose voice does
the ethnographer speak? Contemporary ethnographic texts often seek to resolve this problem by presenting
the ethnographer as acting narrator. Hence the abundance in these texts of the first person singular E1. The
adoption of such a personal narrative perspective suggests authenticity of the reported events to the effect of
adding credibility of the inferences made. This procedure is, however, at variance with ethnographic
research practice. Rather than letting data speak for itself, the ethnographer develops an image of what is
happening in a particular social setting, based on systematic observation. The ethnographer thus tries to read
a social situation, much like the reader reads a book: gradually the plot of a narrative, its main characters,
their symbolic actions and the drama they portray unfold. The paper argues that writing ethnography from
an auctorial narrative perspective does more justice to this research practice. Significantly, it entails
presenting a flow of events from the point of view of an omniscient narrator. Illustrated by empirical case
material from the West African second-hand car business, the paper hopes to show the possibility of writing
ethnographic texts in this fashion, while maintaining representational credibility.
Ruth Bridgens
Cardiff School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, Wales, UK
Autoethnography and Narrative: Survival and 'Being Lucky'
The sociology of chronic illness and disability has developed through its relationship with medicine and the
medical profession, mainly separate from mainstream sociology. This division has remained even though
research has increasingly explored the experiences of chronically ill people in society, people who may
have very little contact with the medical profession. As a result, the complexity of illness narratives,
especially long-term illness and disability since childhood, and comparisons with other narratives of
disrupted lives have been neglected. Chronic illness is generally simplified into the tragic or heroic -- either
a loss of self and chaos narrative, or a stoical or witnessing hero. Disability theorists have noted that most
theories about disability have more to do with the fears of society and researchers than disabled people
themselves. Using the survival narrative of 'being lucky', I will explore the subtleties used by society in
controlling and silencing chronic illness narratives as well as a wider range of Holocaust and emigration
narratives, resulting in confused, paradoxical stories as people try to find a balance between the ordinary
and the different.
An important question to ask about these silenced stories is who finally tells them? Who knows they exist?
A specific role for autoethnography and narrative may be to discover or access these hidden stories.
Through several narrative, autoethnographic and biographical examples, I will discuss the position of those
who are able to understand and tell these stories, people hovering on the edge of the already liminal place of
these marginal groups, what Primo Levi has called "the edge of ambiguity". To some extent, the difficulties
involved in telling and hearing these stories, and the narrow classification as tragic or heroic, have led to
doubts about the use of narrative, and particularly autoethnography, in research on marginalised groups.
Brigitte Smit, Dr Elzette Fritz and Ms Valencia Mabalane
Department of Education Studies, Faculty of Education, University of Johannesburg
South Africa
Ethnographic narratives in a multicultural context
The concern of this paper is the design type or the design genre of a hybrid of ethnography and narrative
inquiry. This ethnographic narrative (as part of the larger study1) portrays teacher identity as lived
experience in the context of educational change to write up the lived experience of three teachers and to
construct identity portraits. We capture school culture with ethnographies of various schools in South
Africa, to elicit the essence of what gives life to schools as cultures of education (Bruner 1996).We present
teacher identities as narratives and ultimately in narrative portraits. The data collection methods comprise of
participatory observation in classrooms and schools in ethnographic mode, dyadic interviews, informal
conversations and journal data, as well as photo data from teachers' photographing activities. Data are
analysed for ethnographic content (Brewer 2002, Delamont, 2001), discourse (Rogers 2004, Fairclough
2003), and narrative, (Roberts 2002) to give thick descriptions (Geertz 1973) of the schools and narratives
of teacher identity in the tradition of anthropological studies. We discuss our data in a combined narrative,
often citing verbatim from our field notes in a conversational text. Making sense of the narrative text,
Carspecken (1996) eloquently cautions us that we can only offer some possibilities, to reconstruct meaning.
This approach enables a discursive analysis of identity, to clarify how teachers forge identity in their work
environment, which shifts beyond the boundaries of what is normally known as ‘school’.
1
SANPAD South Africa Netherlands Programme for Alternative Development: Teacher identity and the culture of
schooling (TICS)
Thomas S. Eberle
Institute of Sociology, University of St Gallen, Switzerland
‘Adequacy’ – a Criterion for Qualitative Research?
In recent debates there has been argued that criteria like objectivity, validity and reliability apply to all kinds
of empirical research. Others, however, have objected that qualitative research has to be assessed along
other criteria. One such criterion is ‚adequacy’ which has a long history and has been used by many
qualitative researchers. What ‚adequacy’ implies obivously depends upon the system of reference it implies.
In a plenary speeach at the ESA-Conference in Helsinki in 2001, the French sociologist Daniel Bertaux
emphasized the necessity to talk about the ‚adequacy’ of social research. He criticized above all the
‚inadequacy’ of propositions of economic theorists who project their rational choice theories on the social
world and have never been in the field to observe what is really going on. But what is ‘adequate’ research if
you are in the field? Obviously it is easier to talk about the ‘inadequacy’ of research than getting a clear
grasp of what makes research ‘adequate’.
The concept of ‘adequacy’ was prominently placed by Max Weber. From jurisprudence he borrowed the
term ‘causal adequacy’ and then, as a compliment, invented the term ‘adequacy of meaning’ (‘adequacy of
sense’). This meant to grasp the subjective meaning of an action. Alfred Schutz later argued that causal
adequacy and adequacy of meaning are the same, as causality in social action can only refer to its in-orderto-motive as subjectively seen by the actor. By the postulate of ‘adequacy’ Schutz proposes that social
theorists should construct models which refer to actions, the subjective consciousness of the actors and their
in-order-to-motives. Schutz’ postulate was directed to theory construction but not explicitly to empirical
research. How can the subjective orientation of actors-in-action be reconstructed empirically? Conversation
analysis has decided to consider an analysis as ‘adequate’ if it can be shown in the data that members
demonstrably orient to the mechanism as described by the analyst. A more radical version was advocated by
Harold Garfinkel with his ‘unique adequacy requirement’ which means that the ethnomethodologist’s
methods of inquiry have to be uniquely adequate to the investigated phenomenon – which can only be
assessed in the course of empirical inquiry (which prevents the formulation of a formal procedure for
ethnomethodological analyses). In his studies of work, Garfinkel also emphasizes that an adequate
intelligibility of ethnomethods requires that the analyst can practice and enact them in the setting (you must
be a lawyer to understand what lawyers do). – In my presentation I track these lines of theoretical
development and discuss the implications for assessing the ‘adequacy’ of qualitative research.
Giampietro Gobo
Department of Social and Political Studies, Faculty of Political Science, University of Milan, Italy
After the ‘Practice Turn'.
A New Role for Qualitative Methodology
Every discipline periodically undergoes theoretical ‘turns’. In the past twenty years the social sciences have
witnessed two of them: the ‘linguistic turn’ in the early 1980s and the ‘practice turn’ at the beginning of the
2000s. The former shifted the focus of theoretical reflection to the role of language, communication and
rhetoric; the latter restored centrality to social practices, a tendency that first arose in the early 1970s.
These turns have been enormously influential on both social theory and qualitative methodology. The
beneficial effects of the practice turn on qualitative methodology are potentially immense. In fact, if
methodologists (seriously and radically) undertook:

to pay close attention to (concrete and situated) research practices;

to endeavour to solve the practical problems raised by fieldwork;

to re-examine old methodological problems in the light of the new practical problems posed by
contemporary society;
the various strands of qualitative methodology could find new ways forward, ones unrelated to both the
normative anxiety (induced by confrontation with quantitative methods) and the post-modern minimalism
that today appears so fashionable, especially among younger researchers.
Max Travers
School of Sociology and Social Work, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
New Methods, Old Problems: A Sceptical View of Innovation in Qualitative Research
A technique used in marketing consumer products, such as washing powder or detergent, is to
place the words “new”, “advanced” or “improved” on the package, which will almost always
increase sales, at least for a temporary period. Qualitative research also has to market itself more
aggressively than in previous decades, both because academic publishers face more pressures to
sell books, and because of the competitive funding climate where one often has to demonstrate
methodological innovation, as a condition for obtaining a grant. In selling books in an increasingly
competitive marketplace, publishers have had to introduce techniques used elsewhere in business:
including hyping successful brands, differentiating products, and devising new features to “add
value”, all of which has happened in qualitative research. In writing grant applications, there are
also considerable pressures to promise methodological innovation, or at least give the impression
that something “fresh” and “interesting” is being proposed.
My objective in this paper is to consider as an ethnographer working in the ethnomethodological
tradition how we accomplish and recognise “newness” in the texts we read and produce as
academics, which include publisher’s catalogues and grant applications. I also want to consider
the issue of “newness” as a cultural problem, in the sense that in placing too much emphasis on
what is new, we neglect or trivialise long-standing and difficult problems. I will illustrate this by
reviewing some considerations involved in preparing two proposals for a qualitative study about a
traditional topic (youth courts) using “new methods”, and a “new” topic (the relationship between
humans and animals) using a “new” method.
Jenny Graham & Jane Lewis
Qualitative Research Unit, National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), London, UK.
Ethical Relations; Research Participants’ Views on Research Ethics
Social research is currently conducted in a climate of increasing emphasis on ethical guidelines, procedures
and committees. Thinking around ethics is led by researchers and theorists and is often heavily influenced by
the application of ethics in bio-medical research. The views of research participants themselves have been an
arguably overlooked perspective within these debates. Ethical decisions in research design and practice
directly impact upon research participants, and the views of this group, therefore, should be considered in
developing ethical practice.
This paper presents the findings from a study conducted by NatCen and funded by a range of government
departments and Joseph Rowntree Foundation (led by the Government Social Research Unit (at HMRC)). The
study employed qualitative methods and depth-interviewed participants from 5 government funded research
studies, shortly after their participation in qualitative or quantitative interviews. Participants had been
interviewed on subjects ranging from child maintenance payments to transport needs.
The study explored ethical issues and requirements from the participants’ viewpoint; starting with how people
conceptualise ethics and exploring issues like the interviewer-participant interaction; the decision making
process for participation; how people manage the level of information they give during an interview and the
aftermath of the interview. This paper considers the implications of these findings for research practice in
applied social research.
Naama Sabar
School of Education, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Israel.
"Whose Stories Are These?" – Ethical Dilemmas in Qualitative Paradigm
The purpose of this paper is to show the complexity of including ethical considerations in research activity
within the qualitative paradigm.
My underlying assumption is that as a result of the differences between the positivistic and qualitative
research paradigms, central principles in traditional approaches to research ethics are, to some degree,
incompatible with the ethical guidance that is required for qualitative research. One of them is Informed
consent that expects the researcher to share the full objectives of the research with the subject and to tell
him her where the research is going to, two rules that can’t be fulfilled due to the nature of qualitative
research.
These considerations will accompany me as I give a general overview of the uniqueness of ethics in
qualitative research, pausing over the issue of "Whose stories are these?" – Who owns the research data?
Who is authorized to interpret them?
In my view, discussion of this issue is a relatively new form of ethical engagement, arising from the
welcome developments in the ethics of qualitative research. However it also poses new questions. While it
may be that preserving participants' autonomy, preventing harm, and striving for equality and mutuality are
aims that are indeed becoming integrated in the researcher-participant relationship at the stages of field
work and data gathering, the presence of these qualities is not unanimously kept when it comes to the later
stages of research especially the analysis interpretation and publication.
How should equality and mutuality be reflected at the stages of data analysis and writing? I will discuss
various ethical considerations that can guide qualitative researchers methodology in facing questions
around the issue of : "Whose stories are these?" Ethical enquiry does not, therefore, simplify research or
make it more effective; rather, it leads us to a more complex understanding of the reality that we live in, and
of ourselves.
Dr. Bettina Kolb
Institute for Sociology
Oikodrom – The Vienna Institute for Urban Sustainability
The photo interview: a participatory method of visual sociology
The paper discusses the method of photo interview (Harper 1987, Wuggenig 1990), describes the possible
stakes in different sociological fields and introduces to methodological issues.
The photo interview is seen as an active participatory process: the involved people define relevancies
themselves which opens a dialogue with researchers. This is an important argument in the participatory
process, in other methods it is the researcher’s task to decide about the relevant research questions.
The method of photo interview can be applied in various fields of social research, pointing out the
subjective value of the respondents with a high involvement. It is possible to collect data material of two
different qualities, the visual data-photos and verbal data – interviews. The interviewees present their
structure of reality in manifold and densely way. They give an interpretation of their own photos in an
interview after taking photos. In the scientific interpretation of the material, one can use various
interpretation techniques. With this reliable material researcher starts to follow people’s structure
investigated in a participatory way.
The photo-interview was a valuable method to work with in different social fields, from health questions to
future living scenarios, from problems of the elderly in Vienna to dwellers in Chinese villages or in Cairo’s
neighbourhood.
The method represents also a successful tool in inter- and transdisicplinary projects. It gives an introduction
in values and relevancies of local people where participation is a crucial point of research.
References:
Harper, Douglas (1987). Working Knowledge, Skill and Community in a Small Shop, Chicago, London.
Wuggenig, Ulf (1990). Die Photobefragung als projektives Verfahren, in: Angewandte Sozialforschung, Jg.
16, Heft 1/2, 1990/91
Daniela Grunow
State Institute for Family Research (ifb), Bamberg University, Bamberg, Germany
Gendered Division of Paid and Unpaid Work at Entry into Parenthood:
A Qualitative, Cross-National Comparative Panel Study*
This study seeks to explore the interaction between individual acts of gender display, specialization,
resource-bargaining, mutual trust, and the relative impact of opportunity structures, as shaped by national
institutional frameworks, on a couple’s decision-making processes concerning the division of labour. One
can observe a traditionalization of gender roles among couples in the process of relationship development,
especially following entry into parenthood, when the volume of reproductive work increases. In fact, this
pattern is still applied by couples with comparable labour market resources and an initially egalitarian
division of roles, challenging the body of theories on the gender-based division of labour. The paper
proposes to study this phenomenon in an event-related, longitudinal, and cross-national perspective, in
order to link couple-level dynamics in the division of labour with institutional and cultural explanations.
The specific aim is to study how dual-earner couples in two distinctly different national contexts, Germany
and the United States, decide how to divide paid and unpaid market and familial work across the transition
to parenthood, and how they frame this decision.
Germany and the United States represent different types of political economy and life course regime,
fostering distinct combinations of social heterogeneity and gender inequality. The proposed paper links the
substantive and theoretical background of this study with its innovative research design and discuss
preliminary findings from the first-wave interviews with nascent parents in Germany. The combination of
cross-nationally comparable qualitative and quantitative couple level analyses is an novelty in crossnational research. It will likely provide an improved picture of the relative strength of the structural and
cultural reasons for gendered divisions of paid work in the labor market and unpaid work in the family.
* This paper is part of my postdoctoral project conducted at ifb Bamberg, Germany and CIQLE, Yale
University, Connecticut, Spring 2006-Autumn 2008.
Lukas T. Marciniak
The Sociology of Organisation & Management Department
Institute of Sociology, Faculty of Economics and Sociology, Lodz University, Lodz, Poland.
Context Analysis vs. Pattern Analysis.
Different Ways of Applying Qualitative Research Methodology.
The paper aims to describe and contrast two different approaches to qualitative methodology application.
Both approaches are based on the same aspiration for deepen analysis of studied social phenomenon, both
use similar methods and techniques of data gathering and analyzing. But at the same time, these two
approaches lead to quite different research results.
The first approach is focused on specification of every detail and every property which might be important
for the final ‘shape’ of the phenomenon. It is based on the belief that there is no social action possible
without a context, the purpose of qualitative research should be then ‘explanation through accurate
description’ of the relation between all elements of the phenomenon at every level of scale from ‘macro’ to
the ‘micro.’ Therefore, this approach can be recognized as a context analysis.
The second approach aims to conceptualize the relation between essential elements of the phenomenon. It is
founded on the conviction that every observable fact has processual nature, qualitative research should
generate ‘explanation through reconstruction’ of the processes basic for the existence of the studied
phenomenon. This approach can be then recognized as a pattern analysis.
The paper describes main features, practical aspects and some methodological consequences of application
of these approaches. In accordance with author’s intentions, it also points out that the differences between
many versions of research strategies like ethnography, grounded theory or phenomenology are in fact
differences between applied type of analysis focused on context or pattern.
Kandy Woodfield
Qualitative Research Unit, National Centre for Social Research, London, UK
Introducing Framework and its Role in Increasing Quality and Transparency in the Analysis of
Qualitative Data
This session will introduce a pioneering new approach to computer assisted qualitative data analysis called
‘Framework’ due for release in 2007. Developed by the Qualitative Research Unit at the National Centre
for Social Research in the mid 1980’s ‘Framework’ is a matrix based tool for qualitative data management.
The development of this software version of the tool has allowed the team to consider the ways in which a
new generation of software tools might help to enhance the quality and transparency of the qualitative
analysis process.
The presenter will introduce the package to the audience and discuss various features of the new software
that can assist researchers in producing robust, credible qualitative evidence. In doing so they will also
explore wider issues relating to quality in qualitative research and how far the use of software packages in
the analytical process can support and enhance transparency.
Claudia Slegers
La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
The Role of Software in Qualitative Data Analysis
This paper considers the role of software in handling qualitative data, and reconsiders claims that qualitative
data analysis (QDA) software can stifle creativity. Marshall (1999) has explored this question, observing
that such packages can improve the rigour of qualitative inquiry, and far from killing creative engagement
with the data, may result in a richer end product. I visit these issues in relation to my experiences as a
doctoral student and earlier as a researcher in collaborative research endeavours, both with and without such
software. I argue that judicious and light-handed use of such software packages can efficiently aid collation,
in digital form, of the researcher's emerging ideas and themes, whilst freeing him/her up for reflection at
every point in the analysis process, and the ability to retrieve and track these ideas. This can allow the
possibility of a richer and more finely drawn account of the data. Used shrewdly, such software can actually
facilitate creativity just as it can box it in