1,721,061 research outputs found
Theory and the breadth-and-depth method of analysing large amounts of qualitative data: a research note
Full text linkThis research note builds on a previously published discussion of the ‘breadth-and-depth’ method for working with extensive amounts of secondary qualitative data, to consider the way that theory can be used and developed as part of this method. We illustrate potential deductive, inductive, and abductive logics of the relationship between theory and data that can be pursued using the method, but note that in reality research analysis rarely proceeds along such clear categorical lines. Rather, qualitative researchers are more likely to pursue a flexible retroductive logic and analytic practice that the breadth-and-depth method also can accommodate.</p
Selecting data sets to create new assemblages
No full textThe focus of today’s blog is on the process of identifying qualitative material from multiple archived data sets to bring together to conduct secondary analysis. This process is the first stage in a four-step breath-and-depth method we developed for analysing large volumes of qualitative data. We draw on our experiences of conducting the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods project, of which the Big Qual Analysis Resource Hub is an outcome. Utilising different qualitative longitudinal research (QLR) data sets housed in the Timescapes Archive, our project aimed to explore the possibilities for developing new procedures for working across multiple sets of archived qualitative data. The blog is based on our forthcoming chapter in Kahryn Hughes and Anna Tarrant’s book ‘Advances in Qualitative Secondary Analysis’ (Sage)
Small stories of home moves: a gendered and generational breadth-and-depth investigation
No full textThis paper explores the way people from different age cohorts and genders talk about home moves to contribute a rounded and nuanced relational understanding. We draw on a secondary analysis of qualitative longitudinal data from multiple archived studies, using a breadth-and-depth analytic approach. Conceptually, we apply a linked lives perspective that understands home moves as tied to sets of social relationships and involving the navigation of structural circumstances. We identify complex discrete and serial small stories where moving away from or returning to is interdependently linked to others staying put, and staying put to others’ home moves, at local, intra- and trans-national levels. Home moves are shaped structurally by gender and age cohort generation. Home and moving tend to be more salient in women’s accounts, articulating with familial generation as their own and others’ comings and goings accumulated over their lifetime. Structural issues are also evident in the material and social resources that enable and constrain home moves, with more micro-level identification of recurrent themes of anxieties in the accounts of men who are starting/have youn
Big Qual Analysis: Teaching Dataset
No full textBespoke teaching data set for Timescapes Archive, containing six merged qualitative longitudinal data sets organised by gender and birth cohort.
DETAIL:
This data set is an outcome of an ESRC National Centre for Research Methods research project ‘Working across qualitative longitudinal studies: A feasibility study looking at care and intimacy’ (https://bigqlr.ncrm.ac.uk/). The study examined the possibilities for developing new procedures and extending good practice for working across multiple sets of archived qualitative data. Our aim was to see whether it is possible to do Big Qual analysis across large volumes of complex qualitative material while retaining all that is distinct about rigorous qualitative research. We were concerned with a volume of data too large for an individual researcher or small team to manage effectively.
This data set is designed to help researchers get to grips with thinking about, handling and analysing large volumes of complex qualitative and qualitative longitudinal data (QLR), including working with multiple archived data sets. It comprises transcripts and metadata from 356 in-depth qualitative interviews with 150 individuals (born between 1908 and 2001) whose lives were followed over time as part of the Timescapes Qualitative Longitudinal initiative (2007-2012, http://www.timescapes.leeds.ac.uk/) . We extracted data from six of the core studies, merged the files into one data set and re-organised the material to enable users to explore the data over time and across the life course by gender and age cohort.
Researchers wanting access to the data need to register with the Timescapes Archive (https://timescapes-archive.leeds.ac.uk/using-the-archive/register/) and agree terms and conditions.
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COVID-19 and ‘Big Qual’
No full textPost#28. The blog discusses the potential of qualitative secondary analysis, and in particular ‘big qual’ analysis, for helping to overcome the restrictions placed on qualitative work during the global pandemic. In so doing, Lynn and colleagues draw on a recent ESRC National Centre for Research Methods study – Working across qualitative longitudinal studies: A feasibility study looking at care and intimacy
Big qual: a guide to breadth-and-depth analysis
No full textProvides a guide to the possibilities of big qual and its relationship to qualitative researchPrompts readers to think differently about the relationship between theory and evidence, research questions and dataEnhanced by tried and tested linked multimedia resources, expert international case studies and bespoke teaching datase
Analysing large volumes of complex qualitative data: Reflections from a group of international experts
No full textThis working paper brings together the reflections of a wide range of international researchers to explore, showcase and reflect critically on the potentials and challenges of analysing large volumes of complex qualitative, and qualitative longitudinal (QLR) data, including archived material. Big Qual analysis is a new area for qualitative work and there is little guidance on how best to work with masses of qualitative material. The working paper comprises a set of blogs housed in the ‘Big Qual Analysis Resource Hub’ (http://bigqlr.ncrm.ac.uk/). We created this website to map the progress of our ESRC National Centre for Research Methods research project ‘Working across qualitative longitudinal studies: a feasibility study looking at care and intimacy’ (2015-2019). As part of the project we developed procedures for working with multiple sets of in-depth temporal qualitative data (see Davidson et al. 2019; Edwards et al. 2019 for discussion of our methodological findings). We have gathered together and made available the 27 blog post reflections from 32 authors in this working paper form because accounts of data management and analysis in qualitative research are often sanitised by the time they reach academic journals. Here, our contributors document and share publicly the trials and tribulations, intellectual commitments, contingencies and decision-making processes underlying such analysis, contributing to debates around good practice. We hope that this collection of reflections will promote further conversations about analysis/secondary analysis across large scale and/or multiple qualitative data sets. With guest posts from international scholars, from early career through to established researchers, on topics as varied as the ethics of using Big Qual data, using secondary qualitative material and computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software, this collection of reflections profiles the diversity of work taking place internationally
Big data, qualitative style: a breadth-and-depth method for working with large amounts of secondary qualitative data
Full text linkArchival storage of data sets from qualitative studies presents opportunities for combining small-scale data sets for reuse/secondary analysis. In this paper, we outline our approach to combining multiple qualitative data sets and explain why working with a corpus of 'big qual' data is a worthwhile endeavour. We present a new approach that iteratively combines recursive surface thematic mapping and in-depth interpretive work. Our breadth-and-depth method involves a series of steps: 1) surveying archived data sets to create a new assemblage of data; 2) recursive surface thematic mapping in dialogue with 3) preliminary ‘test pit’ analysis, remapping and repetition of preliminary analysis; and 4) in-depth analysis of the type that is familiar to most qualitative researchers. In so doing, we show how qualitative researchers can conduct ‘big qual’ analysis while retaining the distinctive order of knowledge about social processes that is the hallmark of rigorous qualitative research, with its integrity of attention to nuanced context and detail
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