Lecture 1: Intro to Qualitative Methods

Question 1

Ontology

Answer 1

What is out there to know about?

Question 2

Epistemology

Answer 2

What can we know about it?

Question 3

Methodology

Answer 3

How can we aquire knowledge?

Question 4

Positivism

Answer 4

• broadly analogous
• aim: identify causal relationships
• researcher = objective and value-free
• generate hypothesis and test them (deduction)

Question 5

Interpretivism

Answer 5

• social world = socially constructed
• aim: understanding social phenomena (interpretation is crucial)
• researcher cannot be neutral –> value-mediated
• identify interpreations discourses attach to social phenomena

Question 6

Critical Realism

Answer 6

• reality is outside of our observational reach
• aim: emancipatory, social change (uncover underlying structures)
• researcher = self-reflective and seeks social change
• theories should be re-evaluated

Question 7

Pragmatism

Answer 7

• metaphysical debates are irrelevant
• aim: understand the research problem (interpretations are true if they have practical utility)
• researcher = cautious and self-counscious
• use all necessary approaches to understand a research problem

Question 8

What is qualitative research?

Answer 8

• aim: provide novel insights into phenomena that are difficult to measure (processes)
• focuses on perspectives and experiences
• data = textual, visual or audible
• systematic

Question 9

When is a qualitative research strategy best suited?

Answer 9

When the topic is:
- ill defined / not well understood
- complex, specialist and deeply rooted in personal experiences
- delicate, intangible or sensitive

Question 10

A good research question is:

Answer 10

• informed by and connected to existing research (cumulative effort)
• focuses on the research topic (feasibility)
• open-minded and non-leading (unbiased)
• open-ended and allows several potential answers

Question 11

Qualitative research question often…

Answer 11

• focus on peoples perceptions, experiences, beliefs and motivations
• uncover how contextual conditions matter
• are concerned with understanding complex political processes (y-centered)
• aim to understand the beliefs and motivations underlying political behaviors

Question 12

Deductive reasoning

Answer 12

Top-down approach to knowledge

the rule + the case = the inference

Question 13

Inductive reasoning

Answer 13

Bottom-up approach to knowledge

the case + the pattern = the generalization

Question 14

Abductive reasoning

Answer 14

The detective approach to knowledge
- puzzle-out or sense-making process
- researcher is simultaneously puzzling over empirical materials and theoretical literature

the case + the surprising pattern = new hypothesis

Question 15

Retroductive reasoning

Answer 15

(retro fitted) inference to the best explanation

the case + the surprising patterns = the causal mechanisms

Question 16

Why are abduction and retroduction innovative tools?

Answer 16

Abduction: helps us inquire after cases that fall outside of our theoretical frames

Retroduction: provides new ideas and insights which might lead to re-conceptualizations

Question 17

Two ontological positions

Answer 17

Realism: based on the idea that there is an external reality which exists independently of people’s beliefs/understanding of it.

Idealism: based on the idea that reality is mind-dependent; it is only knowledgeable through the human mind and socially constructed meanings.

Question 18

Two epistemological positions

Answer 18

Objectivism: Meaning is within the object. An object has certain properties and we can measure that objectively.

Subjectivism: Meaning is mind-dependent. A subject gives meaning to an object.