Qualitative methods in Europe: The variety of social research (original) (raw)
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Qualitative Sociology Review
Documentation of the 2010 Midterm Conference of the European Sociological Association Research Network 20 Qualitative Methods “Innovating Qualitative Research: Challenges and Opportunities. New Directions in Religion, Technology, Migration and Beyond,” held at the University of Bayreuth (Germany), 20-22 September 2010. The following documentation includes the inaugural addresses and all statements and interventions from the two plenary sessions on “The Future of Qualitative Research” that took place during the mid-term conference in September 2010 at the University of Bayreuth. Speeches and discussions were entirely videotaped, transcribed and carefully edited in order to present a thorough and readable documentation. The text was revised by all intervening speakers and is published upon unanimous approval. We are grateful to Carolin Dix for valuable support with transcribing the video data.
2005
Abstract: Our attempt to describe the state of qualitative research in Switzerland starts out with an impressionist sketch which inevitably is selective, subjective and culturally biased. In order to reach a more objective stance, we gather some facts and figures and present them by means of de-scriptive statistics. Based on the database of the Swiss Information and Data Archive Service for the Social Sciences (SIDOS), we analyze a sample of qualitative, sociological research projects funded by national science foundations (Swiss, German and French) between 1995-2004. We compare qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods projects and try to find similarities, differences and trends: Has the ratio of qualitative research projects increased over the last ten years? Can we find cultural differences, e.g. a preference of German or French Swiss researchers for either qualitative or quantitative or mixed methods designs? Do different types of institutions, or do men and women have such d...
Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung Forum Qualitative Social Research, 2005
The background of this article is the observation that the methodological discussions about qualitative research in sociology in German-speaking and Anglo-Saxon contexts are quite different. The article gives an overview of the state of the art of qualitative research in terms of its methodological development and its establishment in the broader field of social research. After some brief remarks about the history of the field, the major research perspectives and schools of qualitative research-grounded theory, ethnomethodology, narrative analysis, objective hermeneutic, life-world analysis, ethnography, cultural and gender studies-are outlined against the background of recent developments. The establishment of qualitative research is discussed with reference to the examples of the German and International Sociological Associations (DGS and ISA), to developments in the area of textbooks, handbooks, and to the founding of specialised journals. Methodological trends such as the turn to visual and electronic data, triangulation of methods and the hybridisation of qualitative procedures, are discussed. In conclusion, some perspectives are outlined which are expected to become more important in the future of qualitative research or which are seen as demands for further clarification. Besides the use of computers and the further clarification on linking qualitative and quantitative research, and of the limits and problems of such linkage, further suggestions concerning the ways of presenting appropriate and at the same time compulsory criteria for qualitative research are mentioned. Trends in building schools and developing research pragmatics, on the one hand, and a tendency towards elucidation and mystification of methodological procedures, on the other hand, are identified as tensional fields in methodological discussions in qualitative research. Finally, a stronger internationalisation in different directions and answering the question of indication are discussed as needs for the future of qualitative research.
Some thoughts on qualitative research in psychology in Europe
Qualitative Research in Psychology, 2019
If we trace the origins of psychology back to nineteenth century positivism, we can see that concern about measurement was a defining characteristic that was used to differentiate psychology from other social/human sciences. The dominant voices in psychology defined it as a natural science that could measure all those psychological entities that existed 'out there' in the same way as other natural scientists measured rocks and other physical entities. This search for scientific respectability and credibility is reflected in the debates about statistics and more recently about replicability which is frequently reported in these contributions. But there have been alternative approaches which can be traced back to at least Wundt whose work was selectively used to buttress the growth of experimental methods despite having a much more expansive perspective (see Wong, 2009). Debates on these approaches have continued throughout the twentieth century and especially came to the fore at times of social unrest when there was questioning of the value of social science. This collection of articles describes the re-emergence of qualitative research in Europe over the past forty years and some of the challenges faced by qualitative researchers. Looking back, we can begin to see some commonalities in these challenges which are not just concerned with method but also about epistemology and the purpose of psychology.
A Cartography of Qualitative Research in Switzerland
Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung
Our attempt to describe the state of qualitative research in Switzerland starts out with an impressionist sketch which inevitably is selective, subjective and culturally biased. In order to reach a more objective stance, we gather some facts and figures and present them by means of descriptive statistics. Based on the database of the Swiss Information and Data Archive Service for the Social Sciences (SIDOS), we analyze a sample of qualitative, sociological research projects funded by national science foundations (Swiss, German and French) between 1995-2004. We compare qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods projects and try to find similarities, differences and trends: Has the ratio of qualitative research projects increased over the last ten years? Can we find cultural differences, e.g. a preference of German or French Swiss researchers for either qualitative
The rise and relevance of qualitative research
International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 2010
The article discusses the development of social research in advanced economies and relates the rise of qualitative research to social changes. The paper suggests that partly, qualitative research emerged because some of the articles formerly classified as 'non-empirical' or 'theoretical' gave way to an increasing share of articles classified as qualitative. In addition, the rise of qualitative inquiry meant that the everyday reality which produces statistical relationships between the variables of quantitative analysis is given more attention. Since the rise of qualitative research has primarily taken place at the expense of non-empirical or theoretical rather than quantitative articles, one can argue that it has contributed to an overall systematization of social research. Overall, qualitative inquiry simply carries on one aspect of social science, the mission to study 'the social body,' the practices that make up social institutions and produce the regularities reflected in statistical relations.
Qualitative methods: the new orthodoxy?
Progress in Human Geography, 2002
It is an interesting moment to write Progress in Human Geography's first report on qualitative methods. In one sense, it suggests these methods have, at long last, arrived and been accepted as established approaches. That this is an overdue recognition needs little emphasizing when surveying the number of articles drawing upon, at least in part, qualitative material. However, a less encouraging omen is the recent column in the UK Economic and Social Research Council's Social Sciences, penned by the chief executive (Marshall, 2001). In it he asserts: 'British universities and colleges are not producing quantitatively competent social scientists in sufficient numbers.' Although he does not mention what 'non-quantitative' research is doing, he discusses a series of remedial measures-such as compulsory training in statistics, prioritized awards for quantitative PhD projects, tied studentships and specialist research centres. To paraphrase Spike Milligan's comment on army training, the attitude appears to be-if someone dies when you hang them, keep hanging them until they get used to it. It is already feeding through into new postgraduate Research Training Guidelines. The problem we are told is acute, though the evidence presented is scant and, moreoever, ironically seems to consist of unanalysed, qualitative reports from meetings with civil servants: 'Failure to [remedy the shortage] is likely to result in Britain falling behind the rest of Europe, both in the provision of talented quantitative social researchers, and the ability to design public policy on a reliable evidence base.' It seems to imply that qualitative research has not only arrived but gone too far. Within geography, the last decade has undoubtedly seen an expansion in qualitative work both in terms of the types of work and the topics addressed. So in this first report I want to spend some time looking at the range of topics, then beginning to look at the range of methods that might be covered. I want to suggest that we have moved from a period when papers were prefaced with legitimations of qualitative work to a time when we are seeing debates within qualitative methods over establishing orthodox
Qualitative Researches In Social Sciences
Janapriya Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 2017
Qualitative social science research is fundamentally embedded in grounded theory concerned with how the social world is interpreted, realized, understood and experienced, or produced. Qualitative investigation seeks answers to their questions in the realistic world. They congregate what they see, hear and read from the people and places and from events and activities and their main purpose are to learn about some aspects of the social world and to generate new understandings that can be used by that social world. The main objective of this study is the interpretation of social world especially of cultures and people's life-ways rather than seeking causal explanations for social-cultural practices. Nevertheless, in very rapidly changing information dominated globalized world, innovative traditions of the perception of emerging local and global contexts and realities need to be exposed and accepted as well as practiced in qualitative social science research.