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.