Qualitative Social Science Research Articles

CAQDAS-GIS Convergence

The article explores qualitative geography and qualitative social science as sites of mixed methods research practice. The authors argue that there is an emergent convergence of methodologies and analytical purposes between qualitative geography and qualitative social science. The authors show how methodological and analytical convergence has been enabled by technological convergence between geographical information systems (GIS) and qualitative software (CAQDAS). The argument is illustrated by examples of convergent geo-referenced mixed methods studies, including a main example from research on reproductive health in Paraguay.

Withdrawal from the Local Public Place: Understanding the Process of Spatial Alienation

Several studies have shown that local residents increasingly withdraw from local public places either into the privacy of their homes or into remote recreation areas. The villages thus mutate more and more into dormitory towns. Often this tendency is seen as a consequence of spatial alienation. To understand this process we investigated two Swiss rural communities using methods of qualitative social science research. We found that increasing individualism was a stimulating condition for avoiding local public places. The main cause for this proved to be the rigidity of the social structures which inhibit the residents from expressing and regulating their individual identity in public places. In order to counteract this process, to satisfy residents' needs and avoid compensatory effects such as increased mobility, more places of informal interaction are needed in rural communities.

“Poem is What?” Poetic Inquiry in Qualitative Social Science Research

This paper articulates the findings of a two-year Canadian federally-funded postdoctoral study — Poetic inquiry in qualitative research: A critical survey — on the use of poetry in social science qualitative research practices. Based on a 1000+ page annotated bibliography gathered into a critical anthology as the data for this project, the discoveries emerged that are expressed below. The bibliography consists solely of poems included in over 230 studies found for this multidisciplinary project, supported by abstracts and brief contextual notes. Selection criteria for included studies were peer-reviewed journal contributions only, bracketing out anything that had appeared in book form, in ‘Poet's Corners’, and also excluding poems appearing in theses or dissertations. Some of these excluded poems are cited in a separate Appendix. These criteria were made simply to limit the scope of the study to a manageable scale. Most of this poetically-informed scholarship has appeared in the past decade, although some entries date as far back as the 1970's and 80's. Conclusions are that poetic inquiry most often addresses topics with clear affective dimensions, and can be distinguished between participant-based and self-study foci, with occasional examples of theoretical studies. Participant-based studies generally draw on the literary tradition of found poetry to represent participant data. Self-studies may address more philosophical, phenomenological and/or poststucturalist opportunities that present themselves through the use of poetry in social science contexts.

`Knowledge Once Divided Can Be Hard to Put Together Again'

This article critically examines team and collaborative research as an `academic mode of production'. Our main argument is that while theoretically qualitative social science research is rooted within a postfoundational epistemological paradigm, normative team-based research practices embody foundational principles. Team research relies on a division of labour that creates divisions and hierarchies of knowledge, particularly between researchers who gather embodied and contextual knowledge `in the field' and those who produce textual knowledge `in the office'. We argue that a theoretical commitment to a postfoundational epistemology demands that we translate this into concrete research practices that rely on concerted team-based relations rather than divisions of labour, and a reflexive research practice that strives to involve all team members in all aspects of knowledge construction processes.

BOOK REVIEW | Cairo Cosmopolitan: Politics, Culture, and Urban Space in the New Globalized Middle East

In Cairo Cosmopolitan editors Diane Singerman and Paul Amar draw on an international field of contributors clustered in the disciplines of architecture, sociology, anthropology and geography to study contemporary changes in Cairo’s people, its physical space and the global causes and consequences of these trends. What emerges is a detailed, sensitive and wide-ranging look at Cairo from an array of qualitative social science perspectives. But beyond a study of Cairo and its place in the world, the editors bill the volume as the debut of the “Cairo School of Urban Studies” that will produce new interdisciplinary research agendas and methodologies. The editors explain their vision as follows: “This multinational, multidisciplinary Cairo School has aimed to forge a more nuanced, multi-level analysis of phenomena that strives to tie the mundane, common sensical, the everyday, and the local to global processes and flows without forgetting the geopolitics of war, terrorism, monopoly petro-capitalism, and resurgent Third World solidarity…. The Cairo School challenges disciplinary divides between comparative politics and international relations, between anthropology and political science, and between urban planning, geography and political economy.” A strength of this approach is its ability to live with ambiguity and multiple overlapping possibilities: “The Cairo School is comfortable with a certain amount of ambivalence in its representation and analysis of Cairene life”. But while successfully keeping theory from interfering with description of the city’s complex realities, this embrace of ambiguity comes at the price of some analytical clarity. Contributors often seem to approach the book’s key concepts such as “globalization” or “cosmopolitanism” using completely different definitions or underlying assumptions in spite of attempts to forge a shared understanding of these terms in the introduction.

Analyser les pratiques discursives en sciences sociales : Journée d'Etudes du CEDITEC à L'Université Paris XII, le 27 Avril 2007

Analyzing discursive practices in social science - The CEDITEC symposium at the University Paris XII on 27 April 2007: This symposium was organized around the question of the convergence between discourse analysis and certain currents of qualitative social science. The symposium was divided into two parts: "Ethnography, Field Work, Actor", what happens when social actors express themselves during surveys; and "Lexicometry, Corpus, Announcement", conceming certain analytical, conceptual et technical tools generated by the sciences of language, and, in particular, text analysis software and its use in current sociology.

Cooperative method development

The development of methods tools and process improvements is best to be based on the understanding of the development practice to be supported. Qualitative research has been proposed as a method for understanding the social and cooperative aspects of software development. However, qualitative research is not easily combined with the improvement orientation of an engineering discipline. During the last 6 years, we have applied an approach we call `cooperative method development', which combines qualitative social science fieldwork, with problem-oriented method, technique and process improvement. The action research based approach focusing on shop floor software development practices allows an understanding of how contextual contingencies influence the deployment and applicability of methods, processes and techniques. This article summarizes the experiences and discusses the further development of this approach based on several research projects in cooperation with industrial partners.

Grid Computing and Qualitative Social Science

Qualitative research is increasingly important in policy-related and applied work, as well as in academic work. Grid and high-performance computing (HPC) technologies promise significant potential returns for qualitative researchers. Tagged cyber-research in the United States and e-social science in the United Kingdom (and e-research in general), the application of HPC technologies can enhance the scope, depth, and rigor of qualitative inquiry by enabling new data-handling capacities and analytic procedures; new support for work with colleagues based elsewhere; and new facilities to archive, curate, and exploit the many kinds of data that qualitative researchers use. From these resources flow new challenges to conventions of privacy and research ethics, data integrity and data protection, and the relations between scientific communities and society. Based on a survey, individual interviews, and group discussions, involving qualitative researchers and computer scientists, this article scans existing applications of grid and HPC technologies to qualitative research; indicates potential applications; and identifies associated ethical, practical, and technological challenges.

Doing Fieldwork in Japan

When the authors of Doing Fieldwork in Japan write ‘this is not a how-to book’, the image of René Magritte writing ‘this is not a pipe’ on his famous painting comes to mind. Theodore C. Bestor, Patricia G. Steinhoff and Victoria Lyon Bestor have given us a book that not only reflects upon the process of doing fieldwork but also challenges us to question what the concept of fieldwork represents as well. The 21 contributors are from disciplines where fieldwork is less commonly considered important like history and quantitative social science as well as from fields where it is foundational like anthropology and the qualitative social sciences. This is a rich collection of essays that suggest that we reflect on the experience of the researcher, set aside easy distinctions and consider the sometimes surprising continuities in the process of doing research across a broad range of disciplines and methods. Although their focus is on research in Japan, the lessons of this book are much more broadly applicable and should inform a new generation of students working in other locations as well.

Participatory scenario analysis for integrated regional modelling

Integrated numerical modelling, scenario analysis and participatory approaches have become common approaches to investigate possible future regional development in sustainability research. But in accordance with disciplinary backgrounds, the literature on specific case studies shows still great biases towards either qualitative social science or the numerical modelling perspective. By presenting a comprehensive case study on changes in agriculture for the Alpine region of Davos, Switzerland, the role of the participatory involvement and to what degree it was found instrumental in defining the scenarios for numerical simulation are discussed, and methodological benefits and limitations are outlined in this contribution. In the presented case study, the participatory process was intended to fulfil two functions: First, it aimed to support the elaboration of regional scenarios including their preparation for numerical simulation through an Input–Output Model, a Resource Flux Model, a Land Use Allocation Model and Ecosystem Service Validation; second, raising the issue of long-term development and capacity-building within the region and amongst key stakeholders was an important goal. In the course of the project, the participatory process proved very useful with regard to interest raised amongst the local participants. However, it could not contribute to the elaboration of scenarios for numerical simulation as much as expected. Reasons for that were (1) limitations in the numerical models so that the complexity of the system and the range of possible scenarios had to be reduced for scenario simulation, (2) the “bottleneck” between qualitative and quantitative data which had to be overcome, and (3) a shift in priorities for the participatory process towards capacity building in the course of the project which hindered the in-detail elaboration of scenarios for numerical simulation to some extent. From the presented case study and the relevant literature, recommendations to improve the integration of qualitative participatory and quantitative, model-based techniques are finally drawn.

Video and qualitative research: analysing medical practice and interaction

Video has long been recognised as providing an important resource within medical education, particularly, perhaps, for training in primary health care. As a resource for research, and more specifically within qualitative social science studies of medical practice, video has proved less pervasive, despite its obvious advantages. In this paper, we sketch an approach to using video to inform the analysis of medical practice and the ways in which health care is accomplished through social interaction and collaboration. Drawing on our own research, we discuss two brief examples: the first involves the use of computing technology in primary health care and the second concerns informal instruction during surgery. The examples illustrate the multimodal character of medical work, how activities are accomplished through the interplay of talk, the visual and the use of material artefacts. They also illustrate the ways in which video provides access to the complex forms of social interaction and collaboration that underpin health care. We reflect upon the research opportunities afforded by video and the ways in which video-based studies of interaction can contribute to the practice and practicalities of medicine.

Transferability and Naturalistic Generalization: New Generalizability Concepts for Social Science or Old Wine in New Bottles?

Interpretative qualitative social science has attempted to distinguish itself from quantitative social science by rejecting traditional or ‘received’ notions of generalization. Traditional concepts of scientific generalization it is claimed are based on a misguided objectivism as to the mechanisms operating in the social world, and particularly the ability of statements to capture such mechanisms in any abstract sense. Instead they propose new versions of the generalizability concept e.g. ‘transferability’, which relies on the context dependent judgement of ‘fit’ between two or more cases instances made by a researcher. This paper argues that the transferability concept, as outlined and argued by interpretativist methodologists, is thoroughly coextensive with notions of generalizability formalized for natural science and naturalistic social science by philosophers and methodologists of science. Therefore, it may be concluded that the interpretativist claim to a break with received scientific traditions is a premature one, at least with regard to the issue of generalization.

Capabilities, reproductive health and well-being

Lack of reproductive health (or the health consequences of sexuality and reproduction) constitutes a significant deficiency in well-being in developing countries, yet the field is often marginalised within development studies. This paper explores whether applying Amartya Sen's capabilities framework to reproductive health may provide one means of bridging this gap. It asks whether it has advantages over prevailing approaches based on disability adjusted life years, which are disease-focused, or reproductive rights, which are often perceived as being too individualistic. The paper draws on analysis of three reproductive health problems, namely obstetric fistulae, maternal mortality and female genital mutilation, that occur disproportionately in developing countries. It argues that the capabilities approach offers an opportunity to address the social bases of health (including deprivation and poverty) and one class of societal claims to social justice. However, there are barriers to fostering the kind of cross-disciplinarity needed to undertake such research, which would combine the more technical orientation of economics and epidemiology on the one hand, with the more qualitative social sciences on the other. Even where such cross-disciplinarity can be achieved, however, there are both informational constraints and methodological challenges to illuminate health capabilities – as opposed to functionings as measured in quantitative surveys – in such a sensitive field.

« La révolution de velours » dans les sciences sociales tchèques

<titre>&#8220;The Velvet Revolution&#8221; in the Czech Social Sciences </titre> D rawing on biographical interviews with the protagonists of qualitative social science research in the Czech Republic, this article retraces the evolution of the qualitative approach before and after 1989 and presents in greater detail six major research projects conducted in the post-communist era. It takes a special interest in how the actors view their own work and offers a comparison of these investigations with &#8220;western scientific method&#8221;. It examines the various levels of ties that exist between qualitative research and the field studied, underscores the interrelation between the researchers&#8217; stance and the agenda of research topics as well as the form of loyalty that takes shape toward the field over the course of research, and then the choices that are made as the findings it produces are interpreted.

The self-telling body

This essay will examine some of the narrative practices emerging in the health care professions — medicine, nursing, social work, and psychotherapy. We have always, of course, understood that the most fertile and clinically salient information we derive about patients comes from listening to them talking about their illnesses. Nonetheless, medicine’s recent past is marked by not so much a suspicion of as a dismissal of word in diagnosing and treating disease. Of late, medicine (and because I am a doctor, I will limit myself to thinking about medicine in the essay) has found sustenance from such fields as trauma studies, oral history, and testimony work. Finally, we are coming around to understanding that our tasks include the duty to bear witness as others tell of trauma and loss.The narrative practice of medicine — or, as I have come to say, the practice of narrative medicine — unites a host of neighboring concerns and approaches. Historically, medicine came into the narrative realms through qualitative social science, especially sociolinguistics, as a means to represent and comprehend the conversations that take place between doctors and patients. Such scholars as Elliot Mishler, Richard Frankel, Catherine Riessman, and Candice West really altered medical practice by making medical discourse amenable to inspection and then analysis. Around the same time, we also turned to literary texts and ways of thinking that help us to enter the worlds of patients, see others’ experience from their perspectives, greet the metaphorical as well as the factual power of words, and be moved by what we hear. Oddly, then, medical practice became a bridge between the qualitative social sciences and literary theory, letting us, from the inside, see how very similar are the efforts of the sociologist examining discourse and the novelist creating it.We doctors feel great good fortune in having the ultimate objective correlative — what might be captivating but ethereal theorizing becomes as practical and concrete and earthy as can be by virtue of being about somebody’s body — particularly somebody’s ailing body. What extreme pleasure that my thinking complicated thoughts and being attuned to the complex ways of language can translate into control of my patients’ blood sugar or relief of their migraines or diagnosis of their coronary artery disease. Narrative medicine becomes, in the end, a heady, brainy, compassionate, corporeal practice that can heal the patient and nourish the doctor at the same time — by virtue of the talk.

Peer Led Focus Groups and Young People

Peer led focus groups, a qualitative social science research method, and their use with young people are examined. The paper outlines three developments that have contributed to their emergence, namely: traditional focus groups, peer education and participatory research. Drawing on a study in progress, the advantages and challenges associated with peer led focus groups are discussed. A key benefit is that the power differential between the adult researcher and the researched is removed, at least at the point of data collection, rendering peer led focus groups one of few research contexts in which young people can speak collectively with no adult present.

Social Research and Data Collection on Poverty and Underdevelopment in the Congo

Researching development and collecting empirical data on poverty and underdevelopment are major priorities for social sciences academics and researchers in the Congo. This paper presents different methods of studying urban poverty and underdevelopment in Kinshasa. It focuses on the context in which the qualitative approach and different social science methods are used to allow researchers to gather empirical data on urban poverty, household livelihoods and survival strategies. It goes on to explain how difficult it is to conduct ethnographic research in urban Congo and how researchers should organise their fieldwork. The author uses some examples drawn from his own research carried out in Kinshasa in 2001 and 2004 to help understand the importance of the challenge. The paper demonstrates the complexity of research conditions in Kinshasa and highlights the fact that the concept of carrying out research on urban poverty and underdevelopment in the Congo in general involves in-depth knowledge of the field, people and cultures and the ability to deal with unforeseen difficulties.

Accounting for EBM: Notions of evidence in medicine

This paper takes as a focus of anthropological enquiry the set of techniques and practices for the appraisal and clinical application of research evidence that has become known as evidence-based medicine (EBM) (or, more recently, evidence-based health care). It first delineates and classifies the criticisms of EBM emerging from within the health professions. It then charts the evolution of EBM in responding to these criticisms and uncovers its character as a pedagogical innovation aimed at transforming clinical practice. It identifies EBM as an indeterminate and malleable range of techniques and practices characterised not by particular kinds of methodological rigour, but by the pursuit of a new approach to medical knowledge and authority. It situates this characterisation within a contemporaneous political and economic climate of declining trust and growing accountability. This analysis provides a basis from which to consider the notions of evidence implicit in EBM itself and also in the qualitative social sciences, including anthropology, which not only critique but also contribute to these notions themselves. Finally, the paper considers possible future trajectories for EBM with regard to the incorporation of cultural and structural dimensions of health and the inclusion of qualitative material in the evidence base.

Mental and social health in disasters: Relating qualitative social science research and the Sphere standard

Increasingly, social scientists interested in mental and social health conduct qualitative research to chronicle the experiences of and humanitarian responses to disaster We reviewed the qualitative social science research literature in relation to a significant policy document, the Sphere Handbook, which includes a minimum standard in disaster response addressing “mental and social aspects of health”, involving 12 interventions indicators. The reviewed literature in general supports the relevance of the Sphere social health intervention indicators. However, social scientists’ chronicles of the diversity and complexity of communities and responses to disaster illustrate that these social interventions cannot be assumed helpful in all settings and times. With respect to Sphere mental health intervention indicators, the research largely ignores the existence and well-being of persons with pre-existing, severe mental disorders in disasters, whose well-being is addressed by the relevant Sphere standard. Instead, many social scientists focus on and question the relevance of posttraumatic stress disorder-focused interventions, which are common after some disasters and which are not specifically covered by the Sphere standard. Overall, social scientists appear to call for a social response that more actively engages the political, social, and economic causes of suffering, and that recognizes the social complexities and flux that accompany disaster. By relating social science research to the Sphere standard for mental and social health, this review informs and illustrates the standard and identifies areas of needed research.

Talking early childhood education

The use of fictional writing, and in particular fictional dialogue, has gained increasing credibility and popularity within the field of qualitative social science research (Clough, 2002; Denzin, 1997; Tierney, 1998) but research in early childhood education has yet to exploit such methodologies. This article asks: what is meant by the term ‘narrative inquiry’ and how do researchers justify its use in research design and report? The article first argues the place for narrative enquiry in early childhood research. It then demonstrates the power of creating fictional dialogues by illustrating the educational ideas of two historical figures and famous pioneers of early childhood education, John Amos Comenius and Susan Isaacs, through an authored ‘dialogue’ with Philip Selbie. This fictional dialogue explores the meanings of Comenius’ and Isaacs’ work and their relevance to Selbie’s work with young English speaking children in the Czech Republic of 2004.