WHAT IS QUALITATIVE INQUIRY?

Martyn Hammersley

The Open University

NCRM Research Methods Festival,

St Catherine’s College, Oxford, July 2010

Definitions of ‘definition’

There are three broad types of definition:

• Conventional definitions: designed to capture past and/or current usage.

• Stipulative definitions: devised for the purposes of a particular argument.

• Real definitions: intended to identify the true nature of the phenomenon being defined.

Stipulative definition`I don't know what you mean by "glory",' Alice

said.

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. `Of course you don't -- till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"’

`But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument",' Alice objected.

`When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.’

(Lewis Carroll Through the Looking-Glass, ChVI)

Diverse forms of qualitative inquiry

For instance:

• Anthropological ethnography

• Ethnomethodological conversation analysis

• Foucault-inspired discourse analysis

• Critical action research

• Biographical and autobiographical work

• Qualitative surveys

• Qualitative Comparative Analysis

Dimensions of the Qualitative-Quantitative Divide: Method

• Unstructured data

• Data collected from ‘natural’ settings

• Intensive study of a relatively small number of cases

• Use of verbal rather than mathematical forms of analysis/words or numbers

• What?/How?/Why?

Dimensions of the Qualitative-Quantitative Divide: Methodology

• Focus on meanings rather than behaviour

• Data-driven rather than hypothesis-testing

• Contexts rather than variables: case-based

• Construction rather than causality

• Scepticism rather than realism

• Description rather than the identification of laws

• Rigour versus flexibility in design/execution

Aspects of the Research Process

• Question formulation

• Constitution/selection of cases

• Data collection strategies

• Data analysis strategies

• Writing formats

ReferencesBryman, A. (1988) Quantity and Quality in Social Research, London, Unwin Hyman.

Gomm, R. et al (eds.) (2000) Case Study Method, London, Sage.

Hammersley, M. (1992) ‘Deconstructing the qualitative-quantitative divide’, in Brannen, J. (ed.) Mixing Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Research, Aldershot, Avebury.

Hammersley, M. (1992) ‘So, what are case studies?’, in What’s Wrong with Ethnography? London, Routledge.

Hammersley, M. (2003) ‘Conversation analysis and discourse analysis: methods or paradigms?’, Discourse and Society, 14, 6, pp751-81.

Jansen, Harrie (2010). ‘The Logic of Qualitative Survey Research and its Position in the Field of Social Research Methods’ [63 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 11(2), Art. 11, http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1002110.

Robinson, R. (1954) Definition, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

On QCA, see: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~cragin/fsQCA/