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Methodology - Coggle Diagram
Methodology
Qualitative Research
predominantly emphasises an inductive approach to the relationship between theory an research, in which emphasis is placed on the generation of theories
rejects positivism in preference for an emphasis on the ways on which individuals interpret their social world
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An emphasis on naturalism, to understand social reality in its own terms by providing rich descriptions of people and interactions in settings that arise without the researcher attempting to influence them for the purposes of data collection - people attribute meaning to behaviour and are active creators of their social world, rather than passive subjects
'Face to face interaction is the fullest condition of participating in the mind of another human being' 'you must participate in the mind of another human being ... to acquire social knowledge' Lofland and Lofland 1995
The stance of seeking to see things from the perspective of ones research participants is in tune with interpretivism and demonstrates epistemological links with phenomenology, symbolic interactionsim and verstehen
Ethnographers are able to observe the ways on which events develop over time or the ways in which the different elements of a social system (values, beliefs, behaviour etc) interconnect. Findings can inject a sense of process by seeing social life in terms of streams of interdependent events and elements. This is also true for semi-structured interviews by asking participants to reflect on processes leading up to/ during/ following an event
INTERVIEWS - Semi-structured interview keeps structure to a minimum on order to enhance the opportunity of genuinely revealing the perspectives of people you are studying
Unstructured nature of qualitative research offers the prospect of flexibility - researcher can change direction during their investigation much more easily than in quantitative research, which tends to have a built in momentum once the data collection is underway
Researcher is distant in quant - qual means you can build a genuine understanding of the world from the perspective of those being investigated
Quant presents a static image of social reality with its emphasis on relationships between variables - qual is attuned to the unfolding of events over time and the interconnections between the actions of participants of social settings
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Interviewing is less naturalistic, but this factor is offset with the researchers ethnographic research where the participants are studied in their usual envrionment
Epistemology
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An epistemology is a theory of knowledge, a stance on what should pass as acceptable knowledge
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Logically, if we adopt a constructionist ontology then we would need to gain knowledge in very different ways, for example by observing and interviewing social actors in an attempt to understand how they shape and understand the world.
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INTERPRETIVISM
this approach is underpinned by a social constructionist ontology which holds that reality is constituted by human action and meaning making, rather than existing objectively and externally
Primarily concerned with understanding human behaviour. Concerned with the how and why of social action
Strategy is required that respects the differences between people and the objects of the natural sciences and therefore required the social scientist to grasp the subjective meaning of social action
Phenomonology - how individuals make sense of the world around them and how in particular the philosopher should bracket out preconceptoins in their own engagement with that world. (First done by Alfred Shutz)
Symbolic interactionist view - interaction takes place in such a way that the individual is continually interpreting the symbolic meaning of their environment and actions of others, and acts on the basis of this imputed meaning
It is important to consider epistemological assumptions because a mismatch between these and the researchers method is likely to undermine the soundness of the data produced, and, by extension, the knowledge generated (Harley and Cornelissen, 2020)
Ethical Considerations
The degree of ethical scrutiny that researchers face has increased in recent years and the burden of responsibility for demonstrating that ethical issues have been satisfactorily addressed is placed firmly on the researcher
As my study involves human participants, it is important for the researcher to take account of potential ethical issues porior to commencing their study and plan research in a way to minimise ethical risks
The research has been influenced by both the AOM code of ethics and the CABS Ethics guide (reference!!)
Four main areas of concern (Diener and Crandall, 1978): harm to participants, lack of informed consent, invasion of privacy, deception
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Anonymity - maintaining anonymity can be a particular challenge in qualitative research where sample size is small, making it easier to identify individuals based on information given
Lee (2004) 2 different types of danger in field work: ambient (situations that are avoidable and where danger is a feature of the context) situational (occurs when researcher's presence or activities evoke agression, hostility or violence from those in the setting)
research participants 'not only deserve the protection of anonymity, but that they actively desire it' (Grinyer, 2002)
Informed consent - participants should be informed with as much information as possible about a study so they can make an informed decision about whether or not they wish to participate. if observation techniques or recording will happen
Homan (1991) in ethnographic research, ensuring absolutely everyone has the opportunity for informed consent is not practicable because it would be extremely disruptive in every day contexts, but the BSA Statement of Ethical Practice says that covert research can be used where it is impossible to use other methods to obtain essential data
Ethnographic Research
Gaining access - the way access is approached differs according to whether the setting is relatively open or closed (Bell, 1969) - this setting was open because tickets are sold to anyone in the public who wishes to buy them - not restricted by invitation
Took on an overt role when taking pictures of specific people but covert when taking pictures of other things - reduces reactivity
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Gold (1958) classified four participant observer roles: mines is 'Participant-as-observer' where the researcher is a full member of the social setting, but members of the social setting are aware that they are being observed. The ethnographer interacts with people and participates in everyday activities. Couldnt be a complete participant because taking photos of people required their informed consent
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Field notes - notes based on observation, summaries of events, accounts of behaviour, initial reflections
Field notes were a combination of jotted notes (Lofland and Lofland, 1995: 90) to be written up later into full field notes which include observations of behaviour and settings as well as the ethnographers emptional reflections on their experiences
Multi-site ethnography (Prasad et al, 2011:707) - researcher does not confine observations and analysis to a single location but follows specific phenomena as they travel between networks. Mo
Realist tales (Van Maanen, 1988) with interpretive omnipotence
Sampling
Fixed purposive sampling - conducted with reference to the goals of the research, so units of analysis are selected in terms of criteria that will allow the research questions to be answered
In purposive sampling, the research questions guide the sampling approach
Generic purposive sampling - the criteria for selecting cases is established concerning the kinds of cases needed to address the RQs, identitfies appropriate cases and then samples from those cases that have been identitfied
Snowball sampling is a form of convenience sampling that could have worked but I did not need this many participants and did not struggle to find contacts
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Opportunistic = non-probability sampling where researcher collects data from participants who are easily accessible or readily available at the time of study, not randomly selecting participants so this means results may not be generalisable to the larger population
Not relevant to use probability sampling because the subculture population is hard to define or locate
Limitation of purposive sampling = it can introduce bias into the sample if the selection criteria are not well defined or if the researchers personal biases influence the selection process
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Ontology
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When we do research, we are trying to understand reality, so it is important to consider what reality is
OBJECTIVISM - an ontological position that asserts that social phenomena and their meanings have an existence that is independent of social actors
Social phenomenon confront us as external facts and exist whether we are aware of them or not. They have an objective reality independent of our role as observer
THINK MY DISS IS OBJECTIVE/ OBJECTIVISM - "cultures and subcultures can be viewed as existing independently of the people who are part of them or the researchers who observe them". they exist with widely shared values and customs and people function as good citizens or full participants. Cultures and subcultures constrain us becasue we internalise their beliefs and values.
My diss is not objective because I talk about how members reshape and reconstruct the subculture - the subculture would not exist as it does today independently from the people who shape it
CONSTRUCTIONISM - an ontological position that asserts social phenomena and their meanings are continually being accomplished by social actors
'Instead of culture being seen as an external reality that acts on and constrains people, it can be taken to be an emergent reality in a continuous state of construction and reconstruction'
Becker(1982) 'people create culture continuously ... no set of cultural understandings.. provides a perfectly applicable solution to any problem people have to solve in the course of their day, and they therefore must remake those solutions, adapt their understandings to the new situation in the light of what is diferent about it'
Becker realises that it is important to appreciate that culture has a reality that 'persists and antedates the participation of particular people' and shapes their perspectives, but it is not an inert objective reality that possesses only a sense of constraint: it acts as a point of reference but is always in the process of being formed
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Constructionism suggests that the categories people use to understand the social world are in fact social products - their meaning is constructed in and through interaction
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Constructionist - sees that the social phenomena we study are made real by the activities of humans and the meanings which observers attach to them
Netnography
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Term developed by Kozinets (2010, 2012)
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As the community has an online and offline presence, ethnography is used for offline and nenography for online
STUDY OF ONLINE INTERACTION PLUS OFFLINE RESEARCH METHODS (IN ADDITION TO ONLINE OR OFFLINE INTERVIEWS) (Bell et al)
Ethnography
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Sometimes viewed as more naturalistic, because the participant observer studies people in their normal social worlds and contexts as they go about their normal activities
In participant observation, the researcher can be a source or interference that renders the research situation less natural than it might superficially appear to be.
Whenever the ethnographer is in an overt role, a certain amount of reactivity is possible (a response by participants to the fact they know they are being studied. Reactivity is deemed to result in untypical behaviour)
Quantitative Research
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The measurement process possesses an artificial and spurious sense of precision and accuracy - quant data is often qual data which has been forced into numerical form
The reliance on instruments and procedures hinders the connection between research and every day life
The analysis of relationships between variables creates a static view of social life that is independent of peoples lives - the meaning of events to individuals is ignored and we do not know how such findings connect to every day contexts- creates sense of static social world that is separate from individuals who make up that world.
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VALUES
It is possible when using participant observation or very intensive interviewing, to develop a close affinity with the people whom you study to the extent that you may find it difficult to disentangle your stance as social scientist from your subjects' perspective
Coghlan (2001) suggests researchers in action research projects where the aim is to intervene in situations and study them at the same time can come across three sets of issues: their pre understanding of the setting, their role duality, and organisational politics
Assumption that a researchers prior knowledge, experience and attitudes will influence not only how they see things but also what they see
Data Analysis
Coding - a listing of codes used in relation to the analysis of data. The coding frame will delineate the categories used in connection with each question
Search fir recurrences of sequences of coded text within and across cases and forlinks between different codes
This is referred to as thematic analysis - analysis of qualitative data to refer to the extraction of key themes in ones data
Reasoning in Organisational Research (Mantere and Ketokivi, 2013)
There are three types of reasoning in organisational research: Theory testing research, inductive case research and interpretive research
Interpretive research - Theory is developed involving a dialogical process between theory and empirical phenomenon; results in production of reflexive narratives, not explanatory models or theoretical propositions. Founded on interpretive epistemology
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Grounded Theory
An approach to analysing qualitative data that aims to generate theory out of research data by achieving a close fit between the two
Research Strategy
OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE BEST WAY TO DO RESEARCH GIVEN OUR ONTOLOGICAL AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL ASSUMPTIONS
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Interviews
When qualitative research is undertaken by interview, they may be seen as less 'natural', interviews have to be arranged and participants are taken away from activities they would otherwise be engaged in
Limitations
Postmodernism suggests that there can never be a final, accurate representation of what was meant or said, only different textual representations of different experiences (Denzin, 1994: 296)
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