KEY WORDS Flashcards
Interpretive method
A method in which qualitative data are not taken at face value, but which uses techniques for understanding what might have been meant while taking the specific context and subjective intentions into account.
Representation
Data that are not necessarily objective facts but are at best representations or expressions of factual situations.
Naturalistic approach
An approach that studies things in their natural settings and contexts.
Natural setting
The specific historical and geographical context/situation which people try to interpret and make sense of.
Context
The specific historical and geographical context/situation which people try to interpret and make sense of.
Subjectivity
The way individual personal judgment is shaped by personal opinions and feelings, as well as meanings allocated to the situation by the person being confronted.
Subjectivity of Researcher
The way individual researcher’s interpretations are shaped by personal positionings, ideologies, interpretative/theoretical frameworks, opinions and feelings.
The subjectivity of Participants researched
The way the participants subjectively interpret their situation and how their actions are led by these interpretations.
Meaning
The subjective significance allocated by a person to a situation, or the sense this situation subjectively imparts to that person.
Meaning
The subjective significance allocated by a person to a situation, or the sense this situation subjectively imparts to that person.
Induction
Making an inference or drawing general conclusions based on empirical observations in a particular situation.
Deduction
Deriving a hypothesis by means of logical reasoning based on preset general theoretical insights.
Exploratory
Methodological approach attempting to discover the hitherto unknown, and thus to contribute to theory building.
Confirmatory
Methodological approach attempting to find confirmation of theoretically derived hypotheses.
Explanation
Explaining phenomena by referring to the necessary and sufficient causal relationships between causes and effects
Understanding
Understanding phenomena by referring to the subjective reasons people have for their actions or the subjective sense people make of their actions.
Research Design
Important decisions the researcher needs to make about the way the researcher wants to answer the research questions, such as:
• general setting, like the temporal and spatial setting
• which general methods would help to find answers
• how to collect data (including sampling methods)
• what methods to use to analyse data
• ethical issues
• how to report results
Research Method
The technical procedures governing how to apply a specific method.
Validity
The way the analysis results represent what they are supposed to represent in the current situation, and how far they can be generally applied to other situations.
Reliability
The way in which the results of the analysis can be reproduced, and are robust for disturbing influences.
Credibility
The confidence in the ‘truth’ of the findings.
Transferability
The way the findings have applicability in other contexts.
Dependability
The way the findings are consistent and could be repeated.
Confirmability
The degree of neutrality or the extent to which the findings of a study are shaped by the respondents and not by researcher bias, motivation, or interest.
Research Design
The overall research strategy to find the answers to your research questions. It constitutes the blueprint for the collection of data and the analysis of data.
Societal Problem
Science wants to contribute to a better world, and therefore wants to help solve certain problems. So every research project starts with identifying a practical problem we need to cope with, in society and to which solution science aims to contribute.
Societal Relevance
The way research can contribute to the solution to a societal problem. Note that science usually can not solve to the problem as a whole, but at best can only modestly help to make a small step towards a solution.
Knowledge Problem
Research produces new knowledge and insights. So the contribution of science to society is always focussed on something we do not know already and which we need to know to solve a certain practical problem. It is therefore important to explore what we already know about the topic of our research and to identify the knowledge gap we are confronted with when we try to solve a practical problem.
Scientific Relevance
The scientific relevance of our research is the contribution we can make to filling the knowledge gaps we are confronted with. This can be empirical knowledge (empirical facts), but also conceptual/theoretical knowledge about relevant aspects and their (causal) relationships.
Feasibility
As engaged researchers, we are always ambitious and instantly would like to improve the world. The time frame and budgetary and other limitations of our research project, however, often do not allow this. We, therefore, need to be very attentive and modest about what is really feasible within the framework of our research project.
Research Objective
The research objective is the feasible goal we believe can be realized within the framework of our research.
Research Question
The knowledge problem we are addressing in our research can often be translated into a number of concrete research questions, which we seek to find an answer to in our research.
Theoretical/Conceptual Framework
The research questions we formulated, often involve a number of concepts/variables and propositions about the relationships between these concepts/variables. They might be inspired by existing theories and proposed adaptations or enhancements or alternative formulations of these existing theoretical insights. This is usually the basis of a theoretical/conceptual framework exemplifying your first thoughts about how to conceptualise and theorise your research questions.
Unit of Analysis
In science, we often cannot produce knowledge which is universally true, and we at best can only say something about a certain situation or a certain case under specific circumstances. The unit or entity we wish to say something about at the end of our study is what we call our unit of analysis. The unit of analysis will be determined by your research question.
Unit of Observation
Within the unit of analysis, we often choose a or several unit(s) of observation, which we actually empirically observe and collect data about, to be able to infer conclusions about the (broader) unit of analysis. The unit of observation is determined largely by the method of data collection that you use to answer your research question. In some exceptional cases, the unit of observation might be the same as the unit of analysis, but in most cases, it is not.
Research Sample
The method for the selection of the units of observation is your sampling method. A research sample is a group of people, objects, organisations, or situations taken from a larger population or unit of analysis. The sample should be representative of the population to ensure that we can generalise the findings from the research sample to the population as a whole.
Method of Data Collection
Because of the situational or contextual openness of qualitative research methods, the method for collecting qualitative data is often seen as crucial. In our research design, we need to underpin our specific method of data collection. However, in contrast to some common research practices in qualitative research, this is certainly not sufficient! We also need to underpin our method of analysis of qualitative data.
Method of Data Analysis
In qualitative research it is sometimes forgotten, that one can analyse qualitative data in many different ways, as we also learn in this course. In our research design, we, therefore, need to be explicit about what method of analysis we are using and need to underpin, why this method is suitable for finding the answers to our research questions.
Time Schedule
Collecting qualitative data and analyzing qualitative data is not an easy task, and is certainly much more than a common conversation with participants and everyday interpretations. Scientific research in the field of qualitative research is a tedious and time-consuming job, which demand thorough and realistic time planning. A time schedule is, therefore, an important element in your research design.
Research Ethics
Research should be directed to helping to solve societal problems, and therefore is an ethically responsible job. In doing so, it should also avoid causing harm, distress, anxiety, pain or any other negative feelings to participants and participating organisations. This does not imply that in the conclusions of your research you cannot criticise the behaviour of participants or participating organisations, but it needs to be constructive.
Honesty
Honesty means, among other things, reporting the research process accurately, taking alternative opinions and counterarguments seriously, being open about margins of uncertainty, refraining from making unfounded claims, refraining from fabricating or falsifying data or sources and refraining from presenting results more favourably or unfavourably than they actually are.
Responsibility
Responsibility means, among other things, acknowledging the fact that a researcher does not operate in isolation and hence taking into consideration – within reasonable limits – the legitimate interests of human and animal test subjects, as well as those of commissioning parties, funding bodies and the environment. Responsibility also means conducting research that is scientifically and/or societally relevant.
Scrupulousness
Scrupulousness means, among other things, using methods that are scientific or scholarly and exercising the best possible care in designing, undertaking, reporting and disseminating research.
Independence
Independence means, among other things, not allowing the choice of method, the assessment of data, the weight attributed to alternative statements or the assessment of others’ research or research proposals to be guided by non-scientific or non-scholarly considerations (e.g., those of a commercial or political nature). In this sense, independence also includes impartiality. Independence is required at all times in the design, conduct and reporting of research, although not necessarily in the choice of research topic and research question.
Transparency
Transparency means, among other things, ensuring that it is clear to others what data the research was based on, how the data were obtained, what and how results were achieved and what role was played by external stakeholders. If parts of the research or data are not to be made public, the researcher must provide a good account of why this is not possible. It must be evident, at least to peers, how the research was conducted and what the various phases of the research process were. At the very least, this means that the line of reasoning must be clear and that the steps in the research process must be verifiable.
Ethics Creep
The attempt to govern and regulate social scientific research in the name of ethics, although substantial and situational ethical judgement might diverge from these top-down ethical (governance) claims.
Informed Consent
The procedure for informing the participant about the objectives of your research and about the way you will process and publish the information one gains from the participants, and for getting permission for it from the participant, beforehand or in hindsight.
Community Informed Consent
In qualitative research, we do not only deal with individual participants, but also with participating communities or organisations. So it might be important, to also get joint informed consent from that community or group of people.
Individual Informed Consent
As far as possible it is important to get informed consent from each individual participant.
Analyzability
Completeness and accuracy of analysis and interpretation.
Transparency
Completeness and full disclosure of all aspects of research.
Usefulness
Ability to do something of value with the outcomes.
Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods Design
A mixed-methods design in which one used qualitative research as method following quantitative research to exemplify and explain the results found in the quantitative research.
Exploratory Sequential Mixed Methods Design
A mixed-methods design in which qualitative research is first used to explore the conceptual field before one does a more targeted quantitative analysis of these concepts or dimensions.
Convergent Mixed Methods Design
A mixed-method design, in which parallelly conducted qualitative and quantitative research provide enhancing insights into a specific topic.
Population
The total population of cases one wants to draw conclusions on.
Case
A specific case out of the total population of cases one wants to empirically investigate to base and infer the conclusions of the research on.
Observation
The degree of neutrality or the extent to which the findings of a study are shaped by the respondents and not by researcher bias, motivation, or interest.
Variables
The attributes or dimensions or variables of a specific observational unit which are assessed in your empirical research.
Cross Case Study
A study in which several cases, often a larger number of cases, are investigated, and compared with each other.
Case Study
A study in which one or a very small number of cases are investigated.
External Validity
External validity refers to how well the outcome of a study can be expected to apply to other settings. In other words, this type of validity refers to how generalizable the findings are.
Internal Validity
Internal validity is the extent to which a study establishes a trustworthy cause-and-effect relationship between a treatment and an outcome. In short, you can only be confident that your study is internally valid if you can rule out alternative explanations for your findings.
Interview
The collection of data by asking people questions and following up or probing their answers
Structured Interview
Interview in which structure of the interview as well as all questions and their wordings are predetermined, and in which the participant hardly has any influence on the development of the interview
Semi-structured Interview
Interview in which main topics are predetermined, but order in which topics are addressed and the wording of questions are left open, to suit the situation and the way the interview develops. Also, new (sub)topics may pop up. To each of the topics, the interviewer also formulates probing questions that link up to the answers the participant gave before. In semi-structured interviews, the participant has a substantial influence on the course of the interview
Focus Group Interview
A group discussion (with 5-12 participants) moderated by the interviewer about a specific topic, with the purpose of collecting data on the dynamics of the interactions between the participants
Expert Interview
An interview in which there is a strong imbalance between interviewer and participant with respect to knowledge of the topic at stake. It may become challenging to judge in real-time the answers given and to follow up with the right probing questions. The interviewer can easily be overwhelmed or misled, or become a part of the PR strategy of the expert participant
Narrative Interview
Interview type often used in research on oral history, where except for an initial invitation to tell their story and some further animations to continue, the interviewer leaves the initiative for how to tell their story fully to the participant.
Phenomenological Interview
Interview type which specifically focusses on getting information on experiences, and the structure of these experiences
Questionnaire
In an interview, we are asking people questions. If it is a structured interview, we can use a list of written-out questions, which we then orally pose to the participant and jot down their answers ourselves. An alternative would be to use a written questionnaire which we then ask the respondent to fill out. Increasingly we provide questionnaires online and ask respondents to fill them out online.
Survey
A ‘survey’ is a term which in everyday talk is used interchangeable with ‘questionnaire’ but actually has a broader meaning. A survey is the process of setting up a standardised set of questions, distributing it among respondents, the collection, aggregation and analysis of the responses. So a questionnaire is actually only a part of doing a survey.
Ethnographic Interview
Interview focussing on the culture of a community and on the specific ways people live their everyday life in that community. Since it addresses the shared culture of that community, it is not so much interested in the individual opinions and actions, but in the inter-actions and shared culture within the community.
Photo-elicitation Interview
An interview, which next to the interview questions, also uses visual material like photos, as stimuli for the participant to discuss certain topics
Introductory Questions
In an interview, you usually start with a few easy questions to build rapport which then slowly but surely lead to the main topic.
Probing Questions
(Semi-structured) interviews are more than simple fact collecting interviews and want to delve deeper into the meaning of things, events, action etc. by posing follow up questions, which invite the participant to elaborate further on the topic, and provide more ‘rich’ and ‘thick’ descriptions.
Memo’s
Next to recording the answers given by the interviewee in a formal interview, it may be useful to also write down your observations on the context, on certain things which happened during the interview, or on the information you received informally or ‘off-the-record’ from the participant. Also, your own first impressions after an interview might be worth keeping track of. For this purpose, you use memo’s to write down your observations.
Informed Consent
It is an ethical principle in good scientific research to inform your participant of the purpose of your research, and about what will happen with the information they provide, and about the anonymity policy of your research, and to ask the participant for their voluntary consent.
Transcription
To analyse interview data, it is important to transcribe the full interview, in sufficient detail, as an original record of what has been said.
Street Interview
Interviews conducted by spontaneously addressing people on the street or in public space. These kinds of interviews have their limitations for the length of the interview and for the selection procedure.
Telephone Interview
Interviews can also be done by telephone. Specialised commercial call centres can be hired to conduct these interviews.
Online Interview
Especially surveys are nowadays often conducted online, allowing a more flexible set up of the questionnaire used, and allowing a larger outreach.
Interview Guide
To guide the interviewer through the interview, usually, a written interview guide is used, summarising the topics to be addressed and possible also the questions and probing questions, as well as some formal issues, which may not be forgotten.
Rapport
Creating rapport in an interview is creating a relationship of trust and respect between the interviewer and the interviewee.
Participant Observation
In participant observation, the researcher enters into the social world of those to be observed and attempts to participate in their activities (Saunders, 2016, p. 358)
Structured Observation
Structured observation follows a pre-determined structure, and categorisation of observations
Internet-mediated Observation
Collection of (structured) data from online communities
Videography
Recording moving images to collect observational data
Informants
Those persons/actors who are observed
Complete Participation
Observer takes part in activities, but identity of observer as researcher remains concealed
Complete Observer
Observer observes activities but does not take part in these activities, while identity of observer as researcher remains concealed
Observer as Participant
Observer observes activities but only takes part in activities if necessary, while identity of observer as researcher is known to those observed
Participant as Observer
Observer fully takes part in activities, while identity of observer as researcher is known to those observed
Primary Observation
The observer just plainly records what is happening or is said
Secondary Observation
Observer describes what happened or was said, and thus already interprets the recordings
Experiential Data
Data on personal perceptions and feelings
Contextual Data
Data describing the situation in which activities and events are observed
Descriptive Observation
Observations focussing on the descriptive narration of what is being observed
Focused Observation
Observations which focus on particular aspects, events, interactions, while abstracting from other aspects
Ecological Validity
Validity of observation which is solidified by how well it fits into the specific situation, and suits the different aspects and relations in that situation
Observer Error
Observer is misunderstanding, and therefore misrepresenting, the observation
Observer Drift
Observer during period of observation slowly but surely ‘goes native’ and therefore gets blind for specific aspects of the observed situation
Observer Bias
Observer uses own subjective view or disposition to interpret and describe events
Observer Effect
By being present the observer influences the situation and what happens in the situation observed
Habituation
Informants get used to observer and increasingly return to normal behaviour again
Informant Error
Informant is not representative for the phenomenon under investigation
Time Error
The moment in which observation takes place is untypical for the phenomenon under investigation
Grounded Theory
A qualitative approach aimed at generating theory that is grounded in the data. Key characteristics include an iterative, cyclic, and inductive procedure where case selection, data collection, and analysis are closely linked. Data analysis is carried out by means of a three-step coding procedure.
Coding
Coding is a general term used for attaching ‘meanings’ or ‘interpretations’ to specific parts of our data, e.q. specific parts, sometimes also called ‘quotations’ of a transcript of an interview, or specific parts of an image, by allocating a ‘label’ or ‘code’ to that piece of text or that part of an image.
Concept
A term used to describe a certain dimension or property of a phenomenon. Concepts can emerge out of the coding process and can be seen as a kind of higher-order code or general category.
Constant Comparison
The analytic process of comparing different pieces of data for similarities and differences.
Theoretical Sampling
Sampling directed by the evolving theory; it is a sampling of incidents, events and activities, populations etc. It is harnessed to the making of comparisons between and among those samples. Sampling on the basis of concepts derived from the data. The idea is to look out for situations that would bring out varying properties and dimensions of a concept. Data collection based on concepts that appear to be relevant to the evolving storyline.
Theoretical Saturation
When additional analysis no longer contributes to discovering anything new about a category. Usually explained as the case ‘when no new data are emerging’.
Open Coding
Breaking data apart in smaller units (‘quotations’) and attaching newly-defined codes to them.
In Vivo Coding
Codes using the actual words of the research participants rather than being named by the researcher.
Axial Coding
By comparing codes and by merging codes into higher-order categories, or splitting up codes or categories into more detailed (sub)codes or categories, through axial coding a system of more coherent codes/categories/concepts is produced, and in addition also relationships between codes/categories/concepts are established.
Theoretical Coding
In the final step of theoretical coding, the coherent system and network or relations between codes/categories/concepts are summarised in an all comprising term or concept (e.g. ‘the theory of …’) which names the core phenomenon described by the theory.
Abduction
In Constructivist Grounded Theory Analysis it is assumed that besides the data, also the presupposed ideas and theoretical insights of the researcher play a constitutive role in the theory developed. This is what is usually described as abduction.
Situational Analysis
Situational analysis is intended as supplemental approaches to traditional grounded theory analyses that centre on the framing of action-basic social processes. Instead, situational analysis intends to map the key elements, materialities, discourses, structures and conditions that characterize the situation of inquiry.
Constructivist Grounded Theory
In constructivist grounded theory analysis it is assumed that there is no objective reality to start our inductive process from, but that that reality is already a social construction. So neither data nor theories can just be ‘discovered’ by grounded theory analysis, but are co-constructed by the researcher and the participants.
Category
A category is a higher-order and more general and comprehensive code often derived from comparison and systematization of the original open codings.
Articulation
Articulation is a specific way in which one can create ‘meaning’, and take a certain position, and therefore change their identity and relationship to others.
Discourse
A set of meanings, metaphors, representations, images, stories, statements and so on that in some way together produce a particular version of events. Surrounding any one object, event, person etc., there may be a variety of different discourses, each with a different story to tell about the world, a different way of representing it to the world.
Ideology
Ideology can generally be thought of as the set of ideas, beliefs and aims that a person or group holds.
Nexus of Practice
A nexus of practice refers to a group of people who come together to engage in a number of related social actions.
Clusters of Meaning
This is the third step in phenomenological data analysis, in which the researcher clusters the statements into themes or meaning units, removing overlapping and repetitive statements (Moustakas, 1994).
Epoché or Bracketing
This is the first step in “phenomenological reduction,” the process of data analysis in which the researcher sets aside, as far as is humanly possible, all preconceived experiences to best understand the experiences of participants in the study (Moustakas, 1994).
Essential, Invariant Structure (or Essence)
This is the goal of the phenomenologist, to reduce the textural (what) and structural (how) meanings of experiences to a brief description that typifies the experiences of all of the participants in a study. All individuals experience it; hence, it is invariant, and it is a reduction to the “essentials” of the experiences (Moustakas, 1994).
Hermeneutical Phenomenology
A form of phenomenology in which research is oriented toward interpreting the “texts” of life (hermeneutical) and lived experiences (phenomenology) (van Manen, 1990).
Horizontalisation
This is the second step in the phenomenological data analysis, in which the researcher lists every significant statement relevant to the topic and gives it equal value (Moustakas, 1994).
Imaginative Variation or Structural Description
Following the textural description, the researcher writes a “structural” description of an experience, addressing how the phenomenon was experienced. It involves seeking all possible meanings, looking for divergent perspectives, and varying the frames of reference about the phenomenon or using imaginative variation (Moustakas, 1994).
The intentionality of Consciousness
Being conscious of objects always is intentional. Thus, when perceiving a tree, “my intentional experience is a combination of the outward appearance of the tree and the tree as contained in my consciousness based on memory, image, and meaning” (Moustakas, 1994, p. 55).
Subjectivity of Participants researched
The way the participants subjectively interpret their situation and how their actions are led by these interpretations.
Lived Experience
This term is used in phenomenological studies to emphasize the importance of individual experiences of people as conscious human beings (Moustakas, 1994).
Phenomenological Data Analysis
Several approaches to analyzing phenomenological data are represented in the literature. Moustakas (1994) reviews these approaches and then advances his own. Creswell and Poth (2018) rely on Moustakas’ modification that includes the researcher bringing personal experiences into the study, the recording of significant statements and meaning units, and the development of descriptions to arrive at the essence of the experiences.
Phenomenological Study
This type of study describes the common meaning of experiences of a phenomenon (or topic or concept) for several individuals. In this type of qualitative study, the researcher reduces the experiences to a central meaning or the “essence” of the experience (Moustakas, 1994).
Phenomenon
This is the central concept being examined by the phenomenologist. It is the concept being experienced by subjects in a study, which may include psychological concepts such as grief, anger, or love.
Philosophical Perspectives
Specific philosophical perspectives provide the foundation for phenomenological studies. They originated in the 1930s writings of Husserl. These perspectives include the investigator’s conducting research with a broader perspective than that of traditional empirical, quantitative science; suspending his or her own preconceptions of experiences; experiencing an object through his or her own senses (i.e., being conscious of an object) as well as seeing it “out there” as real; and reporting the meaning individuals ascribe to an experience in a few statements that capture the “essence” (Stewart & Mickunas, 1990).
Psychological Approach
This is the approach taken by psychologists who discuss the inquiry procedures of phenomenology (e.g., Giorgi, 1994, 2009; Moustakas, 1994; Polkinghorne, 1989). In their writings, they examine psychological themes for meaning, and they may incorporate their own selves into the studies.
Structural Description
From the first three steps in phenomenological data analysis, the researcher writes a description of “how” the phenomenon was experienced by individuals in the study (Moustakas, 1994).
Textural Description
From the first three steps in phenomenological data analysis, the researcher writes about what was experienced, a description of the meaning individuals have experienced (Moustakas, 1994).
Transcendental Phenomenology
According to Moustakas (1994), Husserl espoused transcendental phenomenology, and it later became a guiding concept for Moustakas as well. In this approach, the researcher sets aside prejudgments regarding the phenomenon being investigated. Also, the researcher relies on intuition, imagination, and universal structures to obtain a picture of the experience, and the inquirer uses systematic methods of analysis as advanced by Moustakas (1994).
Being in the World
Acting with awareness, responsibility, and freedom within a context of given world-conditions.
Existentials
Basic structures which comprise the ground of existence, like space, time, motion, relation, embodiment.
Intersubjectivity
The process of several, or many people, coming to know a common phenomenon, each through his or her subjective experience.
Phenomenological Reduction
(1) an attempt to suspend the observer’s viewpoint. (2) Hearing another person’s reality and focussing on the central, dominant, or recurring themes which represent the essential qualities or meanings of that person’s experience.
Culture
A set of beliefs, practices, and symbols that are learned and shared. Together, they form an all-encompassing, integrated whole that binds people together and shapes their worldview and lifeways.
Emic
A description of the studied culture from the perspective of a member of the culture or insider.
Etic
A description of the studied culture from the perspective of an observer or outsider.
Ethnocentrism
The tendency to view one’s own culture as most important and correct and as the stick by which to measure all other cultures.
Ethnography
The in-depth study of the everyday practices and lives of people in a specific community. Typically, ethnography involves the study of a small group of subjects in their own environment. Rather than looking at a small set of variables and a large number of subjects (“the big picture”), the ethnographer attempts to get a detailed understanding of the circumstances of the few subjects being studied. Ethnographic accounts, then, are both descriptive and interpretive; descriptive, because detail is so crucial, and interpretive because the ethnographer must determine the significance of what she observes without gathering broad, statistical information.
Indigenous
People who have continually lived in a particular location for a long period of time (prior to the arrival of others) or who have historical ties to a location and who are culturally distinct from the dominant population surrounding them.
Key Informant
Individuals who are more knowledgeable about their culture than others and who are particularly helpful to the ethnographic researcher in getting in contact with participants.
Thick Description
A term coined by anthropologist Clifford Geertz in his 1973 book The Interpretation of Cultures to describe a detailed description of the studied group that not only explains the behaviour or cultural event in question but also the context in which it occurs and anthropological interpretations of it.
Popular Culture
Popular culture refers to the cultural meaning systems and cultural practices employed by the majority classes in a society. The movie with the biggest weekend gross box office total, the number one song on the Billboard charts, the most widely read books and the highest-ranked television show in the ratings are important elements of the popular culture. Popular culture is often discussed in contrast to high culture.
High Culture
As the term “culture” has come to have a broader meaning, more inclusive of everything within a given culture rather than simply the most elite cultural manifestations, the term “high culture” has begun to serve for referring to those aspects of culture which are most highly valued and esteemed by a given society’s political, social, economic, and intellectual elite. Opera, yachting, art are associated with high culture.
Normative
A “norm” is “a standard, model, or pattern regarded as typical”. A process is said to be “normative” when it results in bringing atypical patterns in line with typical ones. Socialization, for example, is often a normative process, as it involves bringing social pressures to bear on behaviour that is considered unusual.
Relativism
Relativism refers to a theory or philosophy which argues that abstract values like truth, beauty, and morality are not absolute, but rather that they are dependent on the culture in which they exist. A relativistic view of the world would see one culture’s notion of “truth” as being valid only relative to that culture; a second culture’s notion of “truth” could be quite different, and yet still be valid relative to that second culture. An important element of relativistic theory is its argument that abstract conceptions like truth, beauty and morality do not exist in the absence of human cultures; instead, they are created by cultures and are negotiated and changed through cultural processes.
Reproduction
“Reproduction,” as it is applied to culture, is the process by which aspects of culture are passed on from person to person or from society to society.
Semiotics
Semiotics is the study of how signs and symbols relate to the things they represent.
Sign
A sign is a variable – like a word, for example – which stands for another variable or meaning.
Society
A society is any group of people living together in a group and constituting a single related, interdependent community.
System of Meaning
A system of meaning is a set of relationships between one group of variables (like words, behaviours, physical symbols, etc.) and the meanings which are attached to them.
Symbol
Anything that is taken to mean something beyond what it is can be said to be symbolic.
Agency of visual objects
The way images or visual objects can do things, have influence, and have an impact.
Audiencing
The process by which a visual image is confronted with an audience, and in which its meaning is (re-)negotiated by particular audiences in specific circumstances.
Gaze
A way of seeing, a form of visuality, that is culturally constituted, and in which we are immersed in.
Genre
Images associated or recognized as belonging to an accepted class, are said to be representative of e ‘genre’. Dutch still-life paintings, for example, form a particular genre, but also ‘war photography’, or ‘holiday pictures’.
Icon
A sign that communicates is meaning by looking some-thing like, i.e. resembling the object it refers to.
Indexicality
The property of the context-dependency of signs, hence the need to explore meaning-making in which placement of a sign in the material world is central.
Modalities of Visual Data
Different aspects of visual data such as:
o Technological aspects
o Compositional aspects
o Social aspects
Multimodality of Visual Images
Visual images make sense in relation to other modes of information, like written texts, other images, other objects.
Narrative Structure
Examines how a story is communicated. This may refer to a set of documentary photographs, a film or comic strips.
Occularcentrism
The apparent centrality of the visual to contemporary Western life.
Photo-Elicitation
Using a picture (or video) as a stimulant in an interview situation. Akin to object-, drawing-, painting- etc. elicitation.
Polysemic
A sign is said to be polysemic when it has more than one meaning. Polysemic images are ambiguous and have many possible meanings.
Representation
Constructed meanings which structure the way people behave
Scopic Regime
The way in which both what is seen and how it is seen are culturally constructed.
Semiotics (Semiology)
The science which investigates how symbolic meanings are made (the study of signs).
Signified
A (real) object or an (essential) concept
Simulacrum
An image which makes it impossible to make a distinction between the real and the unreal.
Site of Analysis of Visual Data
The different sites in which visual data play a role, such as: o Site of production o Site of image itself o Site of audiences o Site of circulation
Vision
What the human eye is physiologically capable of seeing.
Visual Culture
The plethora of ways in which the visual is part of social life.
Visuality
The way in which vision is constructed, determining how we are made to see, and what is kept hidden for us.
Ways of Seeing
We never look at one thing objectively but are always looking at it (our way of seeing) from the perspective of our relationship between the thing and ourselves.
