INFO 272. Qualitative Research Methods

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introduction

• INFO 272. Qualitative Research Methods

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Course Materials

• http//courses.ischool.berkeley.edu/i272/s08/index
  .html
• Lofland and Lofland, Analyzing Social Settings
• Course Reader (at Copy Central)
• Course equipment (audio recording device and some
  notecards)

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What is Qualitative Research?

• Is there such a thing?
• How Im bounding the subject matter for this
  course
• In situ the setting where the social process
  under study takes place
• An inductive approach
• Reflexive the researcher as instrument

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Term Goals

• Gain hands on experience with various qualitative
  methods and feedback on technique
• Learn to match research interests with
  appropriate methodological approaches and to
  understand what can and cant be said about a
  certain corpus of data
• Learn how to negotiate the logistical limits and
  ethical issues inherent in any research practice
• The develop a better and broader understanding of
  the relationship between data and knowledge

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Epistemology, on the one hand

• The Nature of Knowing, Social Reality, and
  Procedures for Comprehending these Phenomena
  Bauer and Gaskell
• OED epistemology - the branch of philosophy
  that deals with knowledge, especially with regard
  to its methods, validity, and scope.

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Qualitative vs. Quantitative?

• Functional equivalence

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Epistemology

• Habermas, Knowledge and Human Interests
• Control - empirical-analytic
• Consensus - historical-hermeneutic
• Emancipation - critical

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Nuts and Bolts, on the other

• getting in, getting along, getting out, and
  consequences
• framework within which the real research is
  conducted
• administrative aspects of research
• ethical issues
• see Lofland and Lofland

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The Study of Information and Technology

• Incorporating material culture (technology in
  particular) into research practice
• as object of analysis
• as probes in data elicitation strategies
• Theories about the role of the material world in
  social order
• Theories about the production/design and
  consumption/use of material objects as a social
  process

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Qualitative Research in the Real World

• the wider perspective
• theory development and testing / academia
• advocacy / non-profit sector, NGOs, journalism
• policy design and development / government, NGOs
• public information service / media, journalism
• product design, marketing, business strategy /
  corporate domain
• innovation, inspiration, creativity / design
  research, fine arts

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Qualitative Research in the Real World

• time factors
• of informants
• funding
• validity requirements
• level of formality

marketing
policy design and development
of informants
product design
advocacy
journalism
innovation inspiration
informal
formal
methodological approach
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e.g. fine arts
impenetrable devices on display at National
Ornamental Metal Museum, Memphis By WOODY BAIRD
Associated Press Writer His inspiration for the
anti-rape devices comes from interviews he had
with five victims of sexual assault who were
trying to regain a sense of physical safety. What
they wanted, Sherman said, was body armor. "When
you talk with someone who's been raped, you start
getting details that are just horrifying. That
horror I transform into my work," Sherman said.
"But if I were to make pieces horribly ugly and
brutal, there's no redemption. The beauty of the
work has a kind of redemptive quality.
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Background
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Assignments

• Field Notes, due 2/21/08 (15)
• A participant-observation exercise the whole
  class will collaborate on

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Assignments

• Interviews, due 4/3/08 (20)
• Two interviews (transcribed)
• Get outside of your comfort zone and beyond the
  campus community

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Assignments

• Final Project, due 5/8/08 (55)
• Your choice
• Build on earlier assignments
• Do some preliminary work for your thesis
• Or do something entirely new

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Syllabus

• Lectures
• Workshop and Discussion
• Guest speakers

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A Mind-Mapping Exercise
What are the hallmarks of high quality,
well-conducted research? What terms come to mind?
Social Research Update, University of Surrey