LECTURE #1

Overview on Qualitative Research Methods

 Contents

·       Research design with qualitative methods –-why?

·       How many qualitative research methods?

·       How does qualitative sampling look like?

·       How rigorous and reliable qualitative research must be?

Compulsory readings

Gentles, S. J., Charles, C., Ploeg, J., & McKibbon, K. 2015. Sampling in Qualitative Research: Insights from an Overview of the Methods Literature. The Qualitative Report, 20(11), pp. 1772-1789.

Morse, J. M., Barrett, M., Mayan, M., Olson, K., & Spiers, J. (2002) Verification strategies for establishing reliability and validity in qualitative research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 1(2), pp. 13-22.

Supplementary readings

Christians, C. 2018. Ethics and Politics in Qualitative Research. In Denzin, N. & Lincoln, Y.S. (Eds.) The SAGEHandbook of Qualitative Research. Fifth edition. Thousand Oaks: Sage, pp. 142-171.

Creswell, J. 2003. Research Design. Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. London: Sage, pp. 179-207.

Lincoln, Y.S.; Lynham, S.A. & Guba, E. 2018. Paradigmatic Controversies, Contradictions, and Emerging Confluences, Revisited. In Denzin, N. & Lincoln, Y.S. (Eds.). Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks: Sage, pp. 213-263.

Mills, C. Wright. (1959) The Sociological Imagination. London: Oxford, Appendix: On Intellectual Craftsmanship.

Ragin, C. et al (Eds.) (2004) Workshop on Scientific Foundations of Qualitative Research. Arlington: NSF.

Wyly, E. (2011) Positively Radical. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 35(5): 889-912.

LECTURE #2

Participant Observation / Ethnography

Contents

·       Access to the field.

·       Types of participation and observation.

·       Researcher’s role and representation.

Compulsory readings

Alan Fine, G., & Hallett, T. 2014. Stranger and stranger: creating theory through ethnographic distance and authority. Journal of Organizational Ethnography, 3(2), pp. 188-203.

Wästerfors, David (2018). “Observations”, in Flick, Uwe (Ed.). (2017). The SAGE handbook of qualitative data collection. London: SAGE.

Supplementary readings

Atkinson, Paul; Hammersley, Martyn (2000). "Ethnography and Participant Observation". In Denzin, Norman, K., and Yvonna S. Lincoln. (eds.) Handbook of qualitative research. London, Sage: 248–161.

DeWalt, K. M., DeWalt, B. R., & Wayland, C. B. (1998). "Participant observation." In H. R. Bernard (Ed.), Handbook of methods in cultural anthropology. Pp: 259-299. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.

Emerson, R. M., Fretz, R. I., & Shaw, L. L. (2001). "Participant Observation and Field notes." In Paul Atkinson, Amanda Coffey, Sara Delamont, John Lofland, & Lyn Lofland (Eds.), Handbook of Ethnography. pp: 356-357. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Guest, Greg; Namey, Emily E. and Mitchell, Marilyn L. (2013) Collecting Qualitative Data: A Field Manual for Applied Research. London: Sage. Chapter 3.

Hammersley, M. (2018) What is ethnography? Can it survive? Should it? Ethnography and Education 13:1, 1-17.

Lewis-Krausjan, G. 2016. The Trials of Alice Goffman. New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/magazine/the-trials-of-alice-goffman.html

Wacquant, L. (2002) Scrutinizing the Street: Poverty, Morality, and the Pitfalls of Urban Ethnography. American Journal of Sociology 107(6): 1468–1532.

Willis, P., & Trondman, M. 2000. Manifesto for" Ethnography. Ethnography, 1(1), 5-16.

LECTURE #3 (1)

In-Depth Personal Interviews

Contents

·       Types according to the structure of questionnaires and the researcher’s role.

·       How to facilitate an interpersonal conversation for research purposes?

·       Non-theoretical formulation of questions.

·       Follow-up questions.

·       Implicit communication and body language.

Compulsory readings

Legard, R., Keegan, J., & Ward, K. 2003. In-depth interviews. In Jane Ritchie and Jane Lewis (eds.) Qualitative research practice: A guide for social science students and researchers, London; Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, pp. 138-169.

Song, Miri; Parker, David. 1995. Commonality, difference and the dynamics of disclosure in in-depth interviewing. Sociology, 29(2), pp. 241–56.

Supplementary readings

Holmes, T. 2020. James C. Scott: Agrarian Studies and Over 50 Years of Pioneering Work in the Social Sciences. Berkeley: University of California. https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/219393?ln=en

Jacobsson, Katarina; Åkerström, Malin. 2012. Interviewees with an agenda: learning from a ‘failed’ interview. Qualitative Research, 13 (6), pp. 717-734.

Magnusson, Eva & Jeanne Marecek. 2015. Doing interview-based qualitative research: a learner's guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Morris, A. 2015. A Practical Introduction to In-Depth Interviewing. London: Sage. (Chapter 1)

Silverman, D. 2017. How was it for you? The Interview Society and the irresistible rise of the (poorly analyzed) interview. Qualitative Research, 17 (2): 144-158.

Small, M. & Cook, J. 2021. Using Interviews to Understand Why: Challenges and Strategies in the Study of Motivated Action. Sociological Methods & Research 52(4), 1591-1631.

Sohl, L. 2018. Feel-bad moments: Unpacking the complexity of class, gender and whiteness when studying ‘up’. European Journal of Women’s Studies 25(4): 470–483.*

LECTURE #3 (2)

Focus Groups

Contents

·       Types according to the structure of questionnaires and the researcher’s role.

·       Group composition.

·       Group dynamic.

·       Researcher's participation.

Compulsory readings

Kitzinger, J., & Barbour, R. (Eds.). 1999. Developing focus group research: politics, theory and practice. London: Sage. Introduction, pp. 1-20.

Ruiz, Jorge. 2017. Collective Production of Discourse: an approach based on the Qualitative School of Madrid. In Barbour, Rosaline S. & Morgan, David L. (eds.) A New Era in Focus Group Research. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 277-300.

Supplementary readings

Cameron, J. 2005. ‘Focussing on the Focus Group’, in Iain Hay (ed.), Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Chapter 8.

Colucci, Erminia. 2007. “Focus Groups Can Be Fun”: The Use of Activity-Oriented Questions in Focus Group Discussions. Qualitative Health Research 17(10): 1422–1433.

Kidd, P. & Parshall, M. 2000. Getting the Focus and the Group: Enhancing Analytical Rigor in Focus Group Research. Qualitative Health Research 10, pp. 293-308.

Madriz, E. 1998. Using Focus Groups With Lower Socioeconomic Status Latina Women. Qualitative Inquiry 4(1): 114-128.

Peek, L., & Fothergill, A. 2009. Using focus groups: lessons from studying daycare centers, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina. Qualitative Research 9(1): 31–59.

Pösö, T., Honkatukia, P., & Nyqvist, L. 2008. Focus groups and the study of violence. Qualitative Research, 8(1), 73–89.

LECTURE #4

Qualitative Discourse Analysis

Contents

·       Qualitative and Critical Discourse Analysis.

·       Units of analysis and coding –inductive and deductive approaches.

·       Syntax, semantics and pragmatics of discourses.

·       Foucauldian discourse analysis.

Compulsory readings

Hall, S. (2001) Foucault: Power, Knowledge and Discourse. In Wetherell, Margaret; Taylor, Stephanie; Yates, Simeon J.  (eds.) Discourse theory and practice: a reader. London: Sage-Open University, pp. 72-81. (Reprinted from Hall, S. [1997] Representation: cultural representations and signifying practices. London: Sage-Open University.)

Fairclough, N. (2002) Critical discourse analysis as a method in social scientific research. In Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (Eds.) Methods for critical discourse analysis. London: Sage, 121-138.

Supplementary readings

Boréus, Kristina & Bergström, Göran (2017) Analyzing Text and Discourse. Eight Approaches for the Social Sciences. London: Sage.

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1991. Language and symbolic power. Cambridge: Polity. Chapter 1, pp. 37-65.

Cobley, Paul & Randviir, Anti. 2009. What is Sociosemiotics? Semiotica 173(1-4), pp. 1-39.

Elo, S. & Kynga, S H. 2008. The qualitative content analysis process. Journal of Advanced Nursing 62(1), pp. 107–115.

Gee, P. & Handford, M. (Eds.) (2012) The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Abingdon: Routledge.

Martínez, Miguel A. (2019) Good and Bad Squatters? Challenging Hegemonic Narratives and Advancing Anti-Capitalist Views of Squatting in Western European Cities. Culture Unbound 11(1): 165-189. http://www.cultureunbound.ep.liu.se/v11/a10/cu19v11a10.pdf

Martínez, M. & Gil, J. 2022. The struggle against home evictions in Spain through documentary films. International Journal of Housing Policy 22(3): 371-394. https://www.miguelangelmartinez.net/?The-struggle-against-home-evictions-in-Spain-through-documentary-films

Ruiz, Jorge. 2009. Sociological Discourse Analysis: Methods and Logic. Forum Qualitative Social Research 10(2): art. 26. http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1298/2882

LECTURE #5

Participatory-Action Research (Miguel A. Martínez)

Contents

·       Positionality and political engagement –sympathy, empathy and synergy.

·       Fake PAR.

·       Methodological democracy?

·       Participatory methods –workshops, plans, actions-performances.

Compulsory readings

Polanska, Dominika & Richard, Åse (2021) Resisting renovictions: Tenants organizing against housing companies’ renewal practices in Sweden. Radical Housing Journal 3(1): 187-205.

Streck, D. (2007) Research and Social Transformation: Notes about Method and Methodology in Participatory Research. International Journal of Action Research 3(1+2): pp. 112-130.

Supplementary readings

Choudry, Aziz (2014) (Almost) everything you always wanted to know about activist research but were afraid to ask: What activist researchers say about theory and methodology. Contention: the Multidisciplinary journal of social Protest 1(2): 75-88.

Fals-Borda, O. & Rahman, M.A. (eds) (1991) Action and Knowledge. Breaking the Monopoly through Participatory Action-Research. New York: The Apex Press.

Greenbaum, S. et al. (2020) Collaborating for Change. A Participatory Action Research Casebook. New York: Rutgers University Press.

Hale, Charles R. (2011) What is Activist Research?

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313514894_What_is_activist_research

Hee Pedersen, Christina & Ravn Olesen, Birgitte. (2007) What Knowledge – Which relationships? Sharing Dilemmas of an Action Researcher. International Journal of Action Research 4(3), 254-290.

Hoffman, Marcelo (2019) Militant Acts: The Role of Investigations in Radical Politics Struggles. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Martínez, M. (forthcoming) Activist Research as a Methodological Toolbox to Advance Public Sociology. Sociology.

Piven, F. F. (2010) Reflections on scholarship and activism. Antipode 42, pp. 806-10.

Reason, P. & Bradbury, H. (eds.) (2008) Sage Handbook of Action Research. London: Sage.