INFO 272. Qualitative Research Methods

‘Corpus Construction’

‘Corpus Construction’ Defining the sites and subjects of in situ

workMaking decisions about your field site(s) –

how a social phenomenon of interest is mapped out onto spatial terrain

Selecting people to follow, observe and/or interview

Selecting media / artifacts from the setting for further analysis

Competence and Innovation Competence (Bauer and Gaskell)

SystematicIssues of public accountability

Innovation (Becker)Challenge conventional thinking

Doing Innovative Research Starting Where You Are (Lofland

and Lofland)Commitment and CuriosityAccess and ‘getting in’

Willingness to go where others won’tThe inconvenient and

uncomfortableThe illegitimate

Approaches Total enumeration (i.e. census) Statistical random sample Snowball sample (iteration again) Convenience sample (bad)

Random vs. Systematic Random Statistical

SamplingDistribution of already

known attributesSample has a

distribution of criterion = population as a whole

Popular misconception – the greater the # in the sample, the more accurate

‘Corpus Construction’ Typifies unknown

attributes Systematic selection

to some alternative rationale (not a convenience sample)

Unknowable PopulationsMany populations of ‘individuals’ are

knowable, however…

What about ‘actions?’ What about ‘situations?’ Open systems (i.e. language) = infinite

populations

Mapping the UnknowableRepresentations

(unknown)

Varieties of:Belief

AttitudesOpinions

StereotypesIdeologies

WorldviewsHabits

Practices

Social strata, functions and categories (known)

[Bauer and Gaskell]

Mapping the Unknowable Iteration until Saturation Don’t collect too much data [logistical

limits]

Problems of Social Strata in Cross-Cultural Research

Demographic Form

Extending Selection Strategies: Sampling for ‘Innovation’ Identify the case that is likely to upset your

thinking and look for it – (the counter-example) e.g. morphine, opium, heroin addicts

If someone says it has already been studied, its probably time to study it again.

Studying the non-serious and the ‘boring’

Loose Ends: Selecting Field Sites Some work is clearly ‘sited’ Some is not (amorphous social settings) –

and therefore locating such work will be more involved

Sites may be ‘open’ or ‘closed’

Loose Ends: Collecting text, images, data Text produced in the process of research

vs. texts produced for other purposes Bauer and Gaskell’s simplified treatment of

newspapers, etc. – newspapers as… vs. Becker’s concern with the ‘sociology of

record keeping’ in media studies, the ‘active audience’

In Conclusion - Representativeness? The problem of unknowable populations Rather than ‘representativeness’ we are

seeking ‘range’ and variation in the social phenomenon under study

To what effect? Challenging notions of what is ‘natural’ or ‘universal’ about a phenomenon

To Review Population and the problem of unknowable

populations Selection for range/diversity of the social

phenomenon rather than representativeness

Selection for innovation Stopping criterion

For Thursday Read Lofland and Lofland section on

logging data Read UC guidelines for protection of

human subjects