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This article describes a multi-method approach for usability testing. The approach combines paper prototyping and think-aloud with two supplemental methods: advanced scribbling and a handicraft task. The method of advanced scribbling instructs the participants to use different colors for marking important, unnecessary and confusing elements in a paper prototype. In the handicraft task the participants have to tinker a paper prototype of their wish version. Both methods deliver additional information on the needs and expectations of the potential users and provide helpful indicators for clarifying complex or contradictory findings. The multi-method approach and its surplus benefit are illustrated by a pilot study on the redesign of the homepage of a library 2.0. The findings provide positive evidence for the applicability of the advanced scribbling and the handicraft task as well as for the surplus merit of the multi-method approach. The article closes with a discussion and outlook. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs150379

The applied connection between quantitative and qualitative methods of social research, dealt within this paper, is based on a pre-study model. The different levels of quality refer to the quality of structure, process and outcome in this research context. These have to be measured within the complex context of academic life. Only selected information from the entire report on the search for proper indicators of quality using empirical data is presented in this paper. Moreover it exemplifies the challenges of developing new indicators for process quality (here: quality of learning, teaching and consultation). The combination of group discussions and paper & pencil inquiries is a good methodical mixture to generate these specific indicators for quality in the complex and hierarchical setting of academia. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs040231

In this paper, we explore the use of a generative metaphor for analyzing qualitative interviews on abortion attitudes. U.S. abortion attitudes are notably complex and multidimensional, thus, requiring subtle, complex, and multidimensional tools of study. We used the generative metaphor of a "doorway" as an analytic tool to enable new understandings of abortion attitudes as expressed across 24 one-on-one semi-structured qualitative interviews with U.S. adults. The doorway metaphor gave us an understanding of the ways in which participants thought of their abortion attitudes as open to revision or change to some degree while also being closed to revision in other ways. This spectrum of openness and closedness does not come into view when examining abortion attitudes through the dichotomous framings. In this methodological paper, we thoroughly describe how we used the metaphor to explicate the complexities and multi-dimensionalities of a person's abortion attitudes.

In this paper, we present and discuss mixed methods research in the context of research on learning and instruction. Education as a field of research can be viewed as highly complex. This complexity is reflected at various levels of the educational system, which are highly interrelated, and where multiple perspectives must be considered, as well as in the reciprocal and intertwined relationships between factors related to learning and instruction. Therefore, we first introduce one of the central theories on the quality of learning and instruction: the offer-and-use model. Second, we review the methodological foundations of research on learning and instruction. Two methodological approaches are discussed in more detail and their strengths and weaknesses are elaborated. Third, we present two studies from our research program and focus on their methodological implementation. Thus, we illustrate significant challenges and opportunities for implementing a mixed methods study in schools. Finally, we discuss the implications for school-based mixed methods research. We conclude the paper with general suggestions on how mixed methods approaches might be further advanced in applied school-based research.

Recording and transcribing interviews in qualitative social research is a vital but time-consuming and resource-intensive task. To tackle this challenge, researchers have explored various alternative approaches; automatic transcription utilising speech recognition algorithms has emerged as a promising solution. The question of whether automated transcripts can match the quality of transcripts produced by humans remains unanswered. In this paper we systematically compare multiple automatic transcription tools: Amberscript, Dragon, F4x, Happy Scribe, NVivo, Sonix, Trint, Otter, and Whisper. We evaluate aspects of data protection, accuracy, time efficiency, and costs for an English and a German interview. Based on the analysis, we conclude that Whisper performs best overall and that similar local-automatic transcription tools are likely to become more relevant. For any type of transcription, we recommend reviewing the text to ensure accuracy. We hope to shed light on the effectiveness of automatic transcription services and provide a comparative frame for others interested in automatic transcription.

Q methodology was created as a means to explore and map subjective viewpoints in a systematic, relational and holistic manner. In this paper, we discuss Q methodology as a promising hybrid approach and present methodological takeaways from an online Q study on the meanings of reconciliation in Colombia, based on data obtained in 2021. Q is a method of capturing subjectivity that conveys an aura of objectivity, because researchers seldom explicitly engage subjectivity We provide a brief overview of our research project, showcase some results, and offer a lens through which to reflect on the entanglement of qualitative and quantitative moments in Q methodology. We spell out its interpretive layers, highlighting the role of subjectivity in two key phases of the research: the design of the study (image-based Q items) and the interpretive process (factor analysis). Although the quantitative moments of Q are seductive in their promise of objective factor analytical measurement, we argue that Q requires researchers to practice reflexivity and to explicitly engage with their subjectivity.

Since the early 2000s, personalized medicine (PM) has been a much-hyped field of healthcare. HIV treatment optimization tools were one of the first successful examples of PM, and have since their development been used to find tailored and optimized treatment for HIV-positive people. In this paper on a case study of the social arena of personalized HIV therapy I show how social worlds worked on both shared and distinct goals within the arena. I highlight the simultaneous centering and marginalization to which people seeking HIV therapy were subjected discursively in the social worlds. I also demonstrate that the further patients were from practitioners' daily work, the more they were reduced to their blood samples, rather than being constructed as complex and human.

In this paper, I reflect upon the methodological implications of digitization and digital methods for situational analysis. I carefully read Noortje MARRES's argument for and development of what she called situational analytics. I ask how her proposal would be incorporated within a situational analysis project of digitization and funerals. I develop a provisional research design, as a kind of thought experiment, weaving my reflections on situational analysis and digital methods through an autoethnographic account of mourning in the enforced digital of the COVID-19 pandemic. I conclude with the argument that such digital methods are necessary for situational analysis to reckon with, and yet also pose a risk of erasing the embodied and affective elements of a situation. I contend that the poiesis of ethnographic research—where mediated and embodied interactions qua situations are experienced and written into language, and writing forms a necessary but always also impossible task—remains rooted in bodies and affects that are always also elements in situational analysis. We cannot lose track of those elements that also defy the digitized elements of any given situation.

In this paper, we explore urban cultural politics and policy-making in Austria through the conceptual lens of the arena. In relation to this, we apply the methodological toolbox of Adele CLARKE's situational analysis. With a focus on the dynamics of cultural political conflicts and negotiation, we analyze urban cultural policies and programming. A particular focus is placed on a city-wide cultural program in the city of Graz. Via interpretive analysis of interviews and situational mappings, we aim to analytically unpack the continuous and contingent processes of cultural political negotiation with conflictual consensus as a sensitizing concept. With this objective, our analytical engagement is situated at the intersection between radical democratic theory, referring mainly to Chantal MOUFFE and Oliver MARCHART on the one hand, and social worlds and arenas theory by Adele CLARKE on the other. We hope to contribute to a theoretically sensitized and empirically informed cultural policy research effort by operationalizing the notion of conflictuality in constellations of cultural political actors and negotiation processes in cultural policy-making.

In this paper, I reflect on various ethical, practical and methodological challenges encountered in the field during my anthropological inquiry into the legacies of the Bosnian genocide at home and abroad. I focus on the importance of the researcher's honesty and self-reflexive engagement with the subject(s), particularly in sensitive contexts such as genocide. I discuss my experience of negotiating various social roles ascribed to me in the field, and how they shaped my research process. I also consider the methodological challenges of working with difficult stories of surviving the genocide and the absences of family members who perished in it. Drawing upon a mixed ethnography approach in combination with narrative inquiry and elements of participatory action research (PAR), I demonstrate complexities inherent in long-term ethnographic engagement with the community life that almost vanished. I reflexively engage with the question of how we maintain intellectual, emotional and ethical engagement with the subject of research without sacrificing our academic integrity or human connection embedded within these interactions? Subsequently, I argue for a supportive scholarly space that welcomes discussion about vulnerabilities, ambiguities and fears encountered in the ethnographic field and emerging subjectivities which further shape the final interpretation of cultures.

In our paper we discuss and criticize an idea which is often taken for granted in methodological discourses about mixed methods: namely that social researchers in general and mixed methods researchers in particular have to adopt a specific epistemological paradigm (a set of beliefs which have to be accepted a priori) before they can meaningfully perform research. By examining different versions of this model of paradigm-bound methodology which Yvonna LINCOLN and Egon GUBA had developed between the 1980s and 2010s, we will discuss implications of the notion paradigm and show that several of the paradigms proposed as the basis of research (e.g., positivism or constructivism) are ill-defined, lack coherence and are only superficially related to actual developments in the history of philosophical thought or contemporary epistemological debates. As an alternative to paradigm-bound methodology we will propose that researchers apply methods in an epistemologically informed way by employing epistemological concepts not as immutable givens but as heuristic devices which are used to identify and solve methodological problems. We will exemplify our approach by means of data from our own mixed methods study in which we simultaneously drew on realist and constructivist concepts to foster the understanding of contradictory statistical results.

In this paper I explore processes of knowledge production and circulation within a specific research community: the self-identified community of mixed methods scholars—i.e., the group of researchers adopting a mixed methods approach and using the label mixed methods—during the phase of its emergence and institutionalization. I focus on citations within this community, considering that the act of citing is linked to the intention of scholars to position their work not only within a research area but also within a community contributing to that specific area. I employed strategies from citation network analysis (CNA) to understand the fields involved, as well as the structure of the community in relation to citation practices. I identified the most common subjects and methodological fields in which mixed methods are mentioned by isolating sub-communities and the most influential authors in the network. I discuss the implications of this network structure with regard to power relations and hegemony. This also includes the function of nodes which appear to be marginal, but are relevant in citation practices since these authors play a bridging role across the various sub-communities.

Mit performativen Sozialwissenschaften erhalten Fragen von Wissenschaftskommunikation und von Gegenstandsangemessenheit neue Bedeutung. Dies wird in diesem Beitrag veranschaulicht, indem wir den Entstehungszusammenhang und die Hintergründe des Webcomics "Pragmatism Reloaded. Die Siedlerinnen von Chicago" in den Blick nehmen, in dem die Geschichte des Forscherinnenkollektivs des Chicagoer Hull House Settlements und insbesondere die Entstehung der "Hull-House Maps and Papers" (RESIDENTS OF HULL-HOUSE 2007 [1895]) erzählt wird. Für unsere Auseinandersetzung mit dem Gütekriterium der Gegenstandsangemessenheit verbinden wir Aspekte der Wissenschaftskommunikation mit der Debatte um performative Sozialforschung und performatives Lernen und argumentieren, dass durch den Webcomic und seinen Entstehungsprozess wesentliche Merkmale der Lebenspraxis von Hull House – methodische Pionierinnenarbeit durch die Nutzung von Visualisierung und die Bedeutung von Kunst für die Gestaltung demokratischen Zusammenlebens – aufgegriffen und in neuer Form verarbeitet wurden.

Causal (aka cognitive) mapping emerged in the late 1970s as an innovative method for capturing and analyzing political decision-makers' and organizational phenomenological and causal belief patterns. Since then, in particular comparative causal mapping (CCM) has become widely used especially in management and organization (MOC) and IT-studies in the UK and USA. This paper provides an overview of the conceptual underpinnings and main variants of CCM to introduce the approach to qualitative researchers interested in new methods and research tools. Next, the paper presents new non-commercial Windows software, CMAP3, designed for small and medium size-N CCM-studies. Finally, to describe CCM-methods' versatility and potential, the paper discusses six types of CCM-studies, which represent different conceptions of target phenomena and research objectives and apply different modifications of the basic CCM-platform. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1202133

This article focuses on the experiences of two researchers, Wolff-Michael ROTH and Luis RADFORD, using cultural-historical activity theory in mathematics education. The aim is to provide insights into the ways these researchers see and engage with activity theory, how they have come to adopt and expand it, and some of the challenges and concerns that they have had using it. These questions are not usually addressed within typical scientific papers. Yet, they are important for understanding both the dynamics of research and the practical use of cultural-historical activity theory. Since the format of research report papers is not necessarily well suited to convey personal experiences and thinking, the present article takes the form of a conversation, which provides an effective vehicle for exploring and articulating these matters. This provides a basis for understanding more deeply the underlying assumptions of this theory; its dynamics and how it is applied in research of mathematics practice, thinking, and learning; and insights into the manner in which experienced researchers grapple with the theoretical dimensions of their research. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1202232

Over recent years, the new sociology of knowledge has become increasingly interested in issues and debates about the ways in which the body features in people's actions and experience of the social world—debates that over the past two decades have also arisen within the sociology of the body. The edited collection reviewed here is based on the contributions to a conference jointly organised in 2010 by two sections of the German Sociology Association's (DGS): the section "Sociology of Knowledge" and the section "Sociology of the Body and Sociology of Sport." The book contains a variety of theoretical and empirical papers that analyse how "knowledge of the body" features in people's actions and everyday experiences, as well as how it is communicated. To guide the debate, the editors use their introductory chapter to differentiate between "knowledge of the body" and "knowledge about the body." This distinction proves very useful in drawing relationships between the individual contributions, which are based on studies from very diverse domains, including the discourse on sexuality, cosmetic surgery and General Practice, as well as exhibitions about the body, pedagogical concepts of the body and the body in martial arts training. It also supports linkages between the theoretical papers in the first part of the volume and the empirical analyses of the later contributions. This edited volume will be of interest to anyone with a background in the sociology of knowledge and the sociology of the body conducting research and contributing to sociological debates on the relationship between the body and knowledge. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs120216

Research in young people by young people is a growing trend and considered a democratic approach to exploring their lives. Qualitative research is also seen as a way of redistributing power; with participatory research positioned by many as a democratic paradigm of qualitative inquiry. Although participatory research may grant a view on another world, it is fraught with a range of relationships that require negotiation and which necessitate constant self-reflection. Drawing on experiential accounts of participatory research with young people, this paper will explore the power relationship from the perspective of the adult researcher, the young peer researcher and also that of the researched. It will explore the self-conscious exchange of power; and describe how it is relinquished and reclaimed with increasing degrees of compliance as confidence and security develops. Co-authored by a peer researcher and adult researchers, this paper will illustrate a range of practical examples of participatory research with young people, decode the power struggle and consider the implications. It will argue that although the initial stages of the research process are artificial, self-conscious and undemocratic it concludes that the end may justify the means with the creation of social agency knowledge, experience and reality. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs120192

The key epistemological assumption in participatory research is the belief that knowledge is embedded in the lives and experiences of individuals and that knowledge is developed only through a cooperative process between researchers and experiencing individuals. There are various notions about the nature and processes of participation in this type of research. This paper focuses on specific processes that are used for a "genuine" participation by experiencing individuals as research participants. It also identifies processes that are critical for researchers to engage with, in order to become pro-participatory in their approaches to qualitative research. The paper draws on a particular project as an exemplar—"The Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Project." This project uses various participatory research processes to elicit and include voices of health-care professionals, service users, and family members. The main objective of the research project is to develop knowledge for new forms of community-based practices for people experiencing mental health crisis. We present the participatory research methodology applied in this research, and discuss two sets of processes used to enhance "participation" in research—one set to encourage and elicit participation by research participants; and the other set to engage researchers in reflection within the participatory research process. This will mitigate the paucity of literature regarding the processes and approaches necessary to make participatory research truly "participatory" both for research participants and researchers. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs120117

This paper addresses the application of observation to online settings with a special focus on observer roles. It draws on a study of online observation of a virtual community, i.e. an open source software (OSS) community. The paper examines general and specific advantages and disadvantages of the observer roles in online settings by relating these roles to the same roles assumed in offline settings. The study suggests that under the right circumstances online and offline observation may benefit from being combined as they complement each other well. Quality issues and factors important to elicit trustworthy observational data from online study settings, such as OSS communities, are discussed. A proposition is made concerning how threats to credibility and transferability in relation to online observation (i.e. lack of richness and detail, risk of misunderstandings) can be diminished, while maintaining the level of dependability (which is potentially high due to a greater degree of anonymity and "isolation" in online settings). The paper thus suggests that the less participative the researcher's online observer role is, the more s/he should consider introducing offline data collection techniques rather than adopting a more participative role in the observed online setting. This methodological discussion forms the basis for making a well-considered choice of online observer role rather than passively sliding into a role assigned by the setting. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs110358

This paper addresses science communication problems: How do researchers convey social science representations and findings to the researched? How are the latter described in research reports? How do they react when they read or hear such reports and when they subsequently engage in discourse with researchers? Typically, social science researchers approach a field site with an attitude of curiosity that is unburdened by an immediate pressure to act. The field inhabitants, by contrast, are subject to the practical constraints of these everyday worlds; they identify personally with their milieu and its protagonists, and they are correspondingly sensitive. The present paper describes their defensive reactions, taking as an example the reception of a research project presented at conferences attended by a mixed audience. It highlights the reactions and strategies displayed by the researched in the contexts of discourse and meaning negotiation in response to unwelcome representations. And it offers several interpretations of the interactions between the researchers and the researched. Field members may oppose the revelation of contextual and causal factors construing it as "washing dirty laundry in public". Researchers react to this in their textual representations, and their reactions may take the form of score-settling. The present paper asks how such contradictory, conflict-laden constellations and perspectives in the discourse between the observers and the observed can be productively dealt with. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1102233

Drawing on the perspectives of ethnography and discourse analysis, this paper first gives an overview of the emerging body of research bringing together the epistemologies and the methods of these two perspectives. It then presents a novel analytical framework for computer-assisted ethnographic discourse analysis. The paper outlines how close analysis of discursive practices—in this case journalistic writing practices—can provide insights into struggles over meaning and hegemony in contemporary knowledge work. The case study explores the production of a financial news story about the supply of gas to French consumers, and the way the practices in question subtly write Russia as a threat. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1101183

When teaching people how to use qualitative software, a number of factors influence what functions in the software are covered. This paper will discuss the teaching of short intensive small group courses on qualitative software and identify the features in the software that influence the structure of the course and the material covered. I have taught QSR software (N4, N5, N6, NVivo2, NVivo7 and NVivo8) to small groups of researchers in universities and research organisations for 15 years. Participants have had various levels of research experience including members of faculty with extensive qualitative experience and Masters and first year PhD students. Participants have come from a wide range of disciplines. The design of each course is generally different to meet the needs of the group, their experience, the practical facilities and when known, the requirements of their project. But how significant is the software in the design of a course? This paper will use records of past courses to identify the elements taught and the reasons for the selection of topics and ordering. The paper will compare the impact of the software user interface, structure, and features by comparing the teaching of similar courses in N6 and NVivo7. The paper will conclude by reflecting on the impact of course design on the use that participants make of qualitative software. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1101277

In this paper we discuss learning about using visual methodologies in a research project exploring social networks, neighbourhood spaces and community in an inner city-area of a British northern city. We draw on the substantive and methodological experiences of visual researchers and provide an account of the ways in which we discussed, developed, and reflected on the value and possibilities of visual methods in our data collection and analysis. We present the paper as a dialogue to represent how, as a research team, we engaged in an on-going iterative engagement with the visual methods we used. Our dialogue considers visual data we collected through a walkaround method, focusing on how these data contributed to our understanding of the field, data analysis, the refinement of research questions, and theoretical development in the research. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1101360

This paper is based on a project created for the KWALON conference in April, 2010. Due to time constraints and the lack of research experience of some of the people working on the project, we took a team based approach to develop the analysis, and focused on descriptive coding. This paper addresses both the items for reflection in the "instructions for developers" and the research question posed. Though the analysis of the data was done using software which enabled more to be done than would otherwise have been the case, it is argued that the results obtained are influenced by the researchers themselves, and factors such as the time available, rather than the software itself. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1101234

In this introduction to the KWALON Experiment and related conference, we describe the motivations of the collaborating European networks in organising this joint endeavour. The KWALON Experiment consisted of five developers of Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) software analysing a dataset regarding the financial crisis in the time period 2008-2009, provided by the conference organisers. Besides this experiment, researchers were invited to present their reflective papers on the use of QDA software. This introduction gives a description of the experiment, the "rules", research questions and reflective points, as well as a full description of the dataset and search rules used, and our reflection on the lessons learned. The related conference is described, as are the papers which are included in this FQS issue. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1101405

In our current research project, we study how experiences such as hearing the voice of the Lord or having a vision of Virgin Mary are dealt with in psychiatry and Catholic pastoral practice. How is the status of these phenomena negotiated by the participants? Under what conditions do they become instances of legitimate religious experience or, alternatively, symptoms of mental illness? We approach the study of these issues "symmetrically"—we do not prefer a priori medical or spiritual explanations. Some time ago, we demonstrated and explained such an approach (which is common, e.g., in contemporary sociology of science), and its relevance for our research, in an analytic paper on the movie "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" (released in 2005). The paper discusses a highly ambiguous relationship, pictured in the film, between medical and spiritual interpretation of the story of a young girl who was considered possessed by demons and who died after unsuccessful exorcism (KONOPÁSEK & PALEČEK, 2006). The question that has inspired this paper is: can such a symmetrical approach be of any relevance also for people we are studying? In an attempt to get an answer, we have interviewed four Catholic priests on this particular issue. The priests had been asked to watch the movie on Emily Rose and read our paper on it in preparation for the interview. Based on the subsequent discussions (and also on some other empirical data of our current research), we wanted to shed some light on whether and in what ways our specific epistemic perspective coheres with the views and positions of our respondents. It turned out that this reflexive research experiment not only helped to clarify points of mis/understanding between us and our respondents, but also contributed to our own appreciation of the role of symmetry in our current research project as well as in the studied social practice. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1101129

Two trends in innovation management have influenced the basic idea of this paper. The first trend shows increased attempts by managers to utilize linear innovation processes derived from literature and from practice. The second trend is an increasing acceptance of the dynamics created in an "innovation culture," as being one of the key drivers of innovation. Both approaches partially contrast each other. Researching the literature in more detail, we found that studies explaining the link between innovation culture and innovation project management are rare. Indeed there is a study by Shona BROWN and Kathleen EISENHARDT (1995) which gives an excellent overview of innovation management research, but again the issue of "culture" was lacking. This missing link between innovation process design and innovation culture at the firm-level provides the theoretical framework of this paper. Behind the scenes of innovation management studies, we realized a methodological gap existed between the research of innovation cultures and their impact upon an organization's innovation processes. Thus, we applied a methodological mix of problem-centered interviews, structural analyses, and context analyses to study the phenomenon. We conducted an interview-based single case study in a Swiss telecommunications company. From these methodologies we created a themed landscape comprising relational topics of the innovation dynamics within an innovation project in the company (one year duration) and briefly described each topic. The main finding in our study is the dynamic role-model that innovation managers in large service firms have to apply to succeed in their innovation management work. Thus, our methodological mix proved to be helpful, although some weaknesses remain to be solved in the future. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1003134

The paper is a contribution to the discussions on how to combine systems theory and empirical research. The paper focuses on functional method, which on the one hand is claimed as the method of systems theory but on the other hand is often only mentioned in passing—in Niklas LUHMANN's later works as well as in recent discussions on systems theory. The contention of the paper is that functional method can still be an important driving force in the development of interesting empirical problematics and analyses. The first and major part of the paper is a reconstruction of main characteristics of functional method. It is demonstrated how the method generates observations and the question is raised about which problem(s) the method is a solution to. The second part discusses functional method in relation to Niklas LUHMANN's later theoretical developments, especially the theory of second order observation. The overall aim of the paper is to reconstruct central traits of functional method in order to demonstrate how it works, what its function is—and where its limitations might lie. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1003122

This paper takes the recent article "Mapping Urban Social Divisions" by BALL and PETSIMERIS, published in FQS, as a starting point for discussing the role of maps for visualizing knowledge and as an object of research in the social sciences. The paper draws on the theoretical approach of "critical cartography" which changed the conception of maps and the practice of mapmaking since the early 1990s. Critical cartography is deeply informed by a poststructuralist critique of knowledge and truth. Maps, no longer conceptualized as graphical images of reality where the only concern is the quality of the data, are powerful actors in the social construction of reality. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1003281

In using the solicited diaries to access the everyday ways in which self-identified lesbians and gay men are made aware of their sexuality, this paper considers the role of solicited diaries combined with diary interviews. Furthermore it draws on empirical evidence to argue that a diary interview provides a richer, deeper and contextual understanding of the documented experiences. The paper reflects on the participants' experiences of keeping the solicited diary, the narratives produced through the solicited diaries and heterosexism as one the main themes to emerge from the solicited diaries and diary interview analysis. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1002160

Many scholars employing qualitative research methods would not doubt that there is a need for quality criteria in qualitative research. But current definitions of such criteria diverge. In this paper, we show why qualitative research is in need of quality criteria and why there is need to clarify empirically, which criteria are most probably useful. A quantitative study of qualitative determined research results is proposed to shed light on this matter. The guidelines for publication of qualitative research studies drafted by ELLIOTT, FISCHER and RENNIE (1999) provided us with a basis in such an endeavor. An exploration of 68 publications was able to show that writers of qualitative academic papers pay much attention to the description of the method and to the consideration of ethic issues. However, the discussions are frequently unilateral and the authors are rarely responsive to problems and decisions made as part of and in their work. Our results show that the number of criteria attained is correlated with the length of the publication. No relationship exists between the number of criteria attained and the type of publication (journal vs. collected edition). The results, the method, and the limitations of the present analysis are subjected to a critical examination and the possibilities for subsequent studies are shown. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1002256

This paper discusses the application of a qualitative methodology—forming ideal types by understanding—to the psychoanalytic psychotherapy of suicidal men. The paper focuses on a particular phase of the methodology: the validation through external expert replication. Data of cases from psychoanalytic treatment, analysed by the originating group in Germany, is analysed by a group in London, UK, which formed to undertake the task of blind comparison. We describe the contribution of this method in the field of psychoanalytic research, the method developed for generating data and the processes through which data are analysed. We demonstrate the comparative findings from the first (German) and second (UK) analyses and explore the meanings of the similarities and differences. The paper concludes with an appraisal of the strengths and limitations (in terms) of moderate levels of generalisation of results from this method for research in the field of qualitative psychotherapy research. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1002120

Retirement transitions in ballet dancers have been under researched. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the experiences of career transition in ballet dancers, from a life course perspective. Drawing upon existing transition models (SCHLOSSBERG, 1981) and sport literature (TAYLOR & OGILVIE, 1994), the paper investigates how ballet dancers cope (or not) with the transition and explores the different factors influencing the coping process. Qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews from fourteen international ballet dancers were used adopting an idiographic approach through interpretative phenomenological analysis and tenets of grounded theory methodology. The results identified a main theme "Coping strategies: Coping within & without" and eight sub-categories: Denial, alienation, indecision, severance, acceptance, letting go, renegotiation and reconstruction. The individual can experience different responses, which trigger different coping processes and subsequently different types of support are sought. Finally the paper briefly discusses some of the implications for future career development and career guidance. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs100210

Young people have been identified as one of the groups most severely affected by post-socialist transformation processes (McAULEY, 1995; BRAKE & BÜCHNER, 1996; KOLLMORGEN, 2003). They are growing up at a time that is characterized by the need for reorientation due to the collapse of state socialism and its far-reaching economic, political and cultural consequences (YOUNG & LIGHT, 2001). Young people in post-socialist countries are thus often described as facing additional risks and uncertainties to create their own biographies (BRAKE & BÜCHNER, 1996; WERZ, 2001). This paper discusses the spatial dimension of young people's perception and experiences of risks. It argues that young people's perception of space has a major impact on how they perceive their opportunities to cope with, challenge and/or negotiate experiences of risks and uncertainties. It will be shown that such perceptions have major implications on, for example, their migration and career plans. The paper will draw on new research findings from an in-depth participatory research study of young people growing up in rural East Germany (SCHÄFER, 2008). The project has focused on young people's perception of everyday disadvantages and risks, and how they translate such experiences and understandings into their (imagined) future lives. I argue here that young people's understanding of risk is interlinked with their perception of space. This spatial dimension of risk, however, has largely been neglected in previous research. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs100159

The erosion of internal labor markets, together with the rise of flexible forms of work such as projects, increases uncertainty regarding the coordination of work and labor market transactions, and it makes employment, income and career perspectives less predictable. This paper addresses the questions of what, if any, kinds of institutional and social-structural conditions are able to provide stability in the absence of the open-ended employment relationship, and which individual certainty strategies are used. On the basis of qualitative, semi-structured interviews with experts and project workers in the German television and film industry, it is argued that the institutional and social-structural context matters crucially for individual strategies to reduce uncertainty. More specifically, this paper aims at contributing to a better understanding of the interrelationship between networks and biographies, and of the interaction between networking and other forms of coping with risks and uncertainty. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs100145

This paper addresses the almost complete disappearance of ethnomethodological approaches from the reflexivity debate in social-scientific theory and methodology since the 1980s. This disappearance is remarkable because many of the tropes and questions characterizing the debate around reflexivity had already been articulated in ethnomethodology. The main reason for this neglect, it is argued, is the productive effect it had, as it helped later debates find answers to the epistemological challenge of postmodern approaches entering sociological discourse from the direction of anthropology and science and technology studies. Those answers could never have stabilized in the presence of the fundamental ethnomethodological presupposition that reflexivity is an ontological feature of social reality. The paper ends with a number of suggestions concerning a revision of reflexivity in the social sciences, highlighting the performative aspects of social meaning, especially social-scientific meaning. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs090344

This paper takes a discourse analytic approach to the construction of identities formed through reception of a psychiatric diagnosis (I will refer to these as "diagnostic identities" throughout) as dilemmatic, and the subsequent negotiations of identities in light of that dilemma. More specifically, it is the diagnosis schizophrenia that is of interest, and how people who receive that diagnosis construct their identities. A key feature of receiving a schizophrenic diagnosis is the potential to see one's identity as under threat from the many negative, and predominantly stereotypical ideas, that persist regarding schizophrenia. Drawing on literature emerging from the field of service user research in mental health, the paper attempts to go beyond the boundaries of a psychiatric biomedical perspective of diagnosis, in order to illuminate how such classifications impact upon those who receive them. In this paper the discursive re-workings of individual diagnostic identities included strategies of resisting diagnosis, attempts to distance oneself from diagnosis, existentialising diagnosis, and recognising but resisting suggestions that people with diagnoses of schizophrenia are a social "risk". URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0903240

People living in poverty have had little opportunity to express their feelings about the precarious situation in which they live. Most studies on poverty have focused on describing its most prominent characteristics, more often in a quantitative manner. This paper aims to explore the way in which people living in poverty conceptualize what they consider important and/or interesting in their everyday lives. Disposable cameras were given to 30 participants. In this paper efforts of 10 different photographers are reported. After the photographs were developed the participants were asked to comment on any aspect or situation portrayed in one or more photographs that could be considered interesting or important to them. Three main topics emerged: family, environmental problems and dangers, and community actions. Most of the photographs and commentaries centered on physically and emotionally-related themes, with a clear tendency to denounce unjust situations and to portray the manner in which the poor cope with the vicissitudes of daily life. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0902353

Based on a research project with migrants from Iran this paper focuses on the influence of a strictly regulated German asylum life situation on autobiographical telling in research contexts. Regardless of the specific research topic the interview situation and the relationship between interviewer and interviewee always influence shape, form and fashion of the biographical narration. As a result of the strict regimentation of the asylum procedures and their far-reaching impact on biographies in the "total refugee space," an intensification of the hierarchical structure in the interview situation can be observed. Considering the empirical results this paper calls for a reflexive biographical research. This approach has to analyze the power relations in the transnational space and their consequences on the research process. It also has to recognize that researchers and interviewees are not only confined to their culture differences, but that the setting comprises all intersectional localizations, which are defined by social and economic status, nationality, gender, sexuality etc. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0901393

Hardly any management theory nowadays fails to take culture's influence on today's organizations into account. At the very foundation lies the belief that the intercultural boundary can be determined externally—by etic view. In my paper I show how much emic organizational reality differs from etic view. Hereby, I refer to two years of fieldwork that I conducted in a global high-tech company at sites in Germany, Austria and India. I choose this approach to trace culture as an open process of sense-making in practice. Through interpretative anthropological means, I identified several discourses of collective identity that were constructed narratively—often regardless of the presumed etic border of "Germans" vs. "Indians." In summary, this paper makes the following contributions: Firstly, it shows how emic and etic categorizations of the cultural other can differ in a complex environment. Secondly, it looks in depth into the emic categorizations of "the Other" and how they are constructed narratively. Thirdly, it draws conclusions for the field of intercultural communication. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0901440

Although researchers across the social sciences speak of a linguistic turn, most research exploring culture still assumes a traditional perspective on language, which conceives meaning as representation. Yet, WITTGENSTEIN convincingly criticized the epistemological basis of such a perspective, offering an alternative view on language. The paper begins by explaining the central points of a performative perspective of language: first, words do things; second, the meaning of an utterance is not directly given by the utterance; and third, meaning is in use. The change in perspective has direct consequences for the way we conceptualize and study our research phenomena. The second part of the paper deals with how social phenomena can be re-conceptualized and studied, putting a special emphasis on the phenomenon of culture. Finally, drawing from my own empirical material, the paper describes the consequences for the study culture applying a performative view of language. Methodological considerations of the change in perspective are also discussed. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0901244

Based on Ernst E. BOESCH's symbolic action theory (1991), the concept of relational hermeneutics (STRAUB & SHIMADA, 1999; STRAUB, 2006) and within the framework of grounded theory methodology (GLASER & STRAUSS, 1967; STRAUSS & CORBIN, 1990) this paper presents an integrative approach to the analysis of complex (inter)cultural action and meaning relations. The objective of pragma-semantic analysis is the identification, differentiation and contextualization of phenomena by analyzing performed as well as potentially possible actions and objectivations. Pragma-semantic analysis tries to reveal from which sources resp. pools of symbols individually as well as collectively available denotative and connotative aspects of actions derived. Further it can be utilized to show how these meanings come to bear in interactions that—through the analysis—have to be identified as intercultural in the first place. Using the empirical example of a German tourist's narrative of her interaction with beggars in India, the paper will outline the approach and show to what extent the pragma-semantic web also allows conclusions on action-possiblities and potential meanings with regard to specific (inter)actions, that is to determine the subjective as well as objective space of possibility. Furthermore, the implications of this approach are discussed with regard to research on intercultural communication as well as the research practice itself. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0901373

What happens when someone rings an emergency hotline for help? How is the emergency handled? How does the emergency service swing into action? Prompt and competent intervention and assessment of the gravity of the situation in a few crucial seconds: these are the quality standards that regulate the organization of emergency operations centers. For a number of years various groups of social science researchers have carried forward a program for the systematic study of work using ethnographic and naturalistic methods of analysis. An interest in work is certainly nothing new in the social sciences, and in sociology in particular. What is new, though, is the particular analytical viewpoint from which such research is now conducted. This program has dispensed with large-scale theorization and has concentrated on the empirical study of activities and practices, achieving an unprecedented level of detail and analytical fineness. Indeed, only by proceeding at this fine level of detail—made possible by the use of videorecordings—has it been possible to document the extraordinary and subtle collaborative production of work, and to do so at a level which extends well beyond the conscious awareness of people in their everyday routine. This aspect concerns in particular the capacity of the latest generation of studies of work to document the tacit procedures and forms of common-sense reasoning involved in the performance of tasks in concrete work settings. This paper focuses on the ways in which the dispatch is done in a medical emergency operation center. Although we know a great deal about the interaction between caller and call-taker from previous research, we know much less about the social organization that makes the dispatch possible. The data analyzed in this paper derive from a research project in which I have been engaged for a number of years on operation centers for the 118 emergency telephone number in Italy. Contrasting the data obtained from audiorecording with the data obtained from videorecording, I will show that a dispatch does not consist purely in information transfer, but is the outcome of intense coordination work among the actors involved face to face and through the mediation of technological apparatus. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0803408

This paper works through the methodological issues involved in treating "culture" and "interculturality" as interactionally demonstrable and observable phenomena in written online asynchronous discourse. In particular, the paper explores the ways that conversation analysis (CA) and its focus on sequentiality and membership categorization analysis might aid the analysis of culture as a textural interactional achievement. The paper argues that, while there are some clear differences between sequential talk and written asynchronous discourse, there are still interesting ways in which CA's analytic foci may be worked through in relation to online discourse. Both the concern with sequentiality and with membership categories may well help us to see how the construction of visible and recognizable intercultural discourse practices are accomplished through written modes in online forums. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0901493

The paper aims at demonstrating some analytical potentialities of video data for the study of social interaction. It is based on video recordings of situated activities in their ordinary settings—producing "naturally occurring data" within a naturalistic perspective developed by Harvey SACKS and subsequent research within ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, interactional linguistics and workplace studies. Analysis focuses on a particular kind of video recording, produced during fieldwork in call centers: it shows the payoffs of videotaping telephone calls in professional and institutional contexts. In the previous literature, phone calls have been treated as a case in which audio recordings were adequate for the resources mutually available to the participants themselves. Video documentation of phone calls in work settings shows that they involve, on the part of professional operators, more than talk at work or than talk as work: they make it possible to observe the complex work activities running simultaneously with the call and in the service of the call, i.e. the multi-activity the call taker is engaged in. In this paper, I analyze temporal and structural features of professional multi-activity in three sequential positions: in pre-beginnings, during the call while Internet searches are initiated, and in post-closings. These positions show the finely tuned coordination between the call and the other activities of the operator, as well as the continuity between the call, subsequent calls in a series and the continuous flow of work in the call center. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0803390

The purpose and focus of this paper is twofold. The first concerns the methodological issues involved with tracking a mobile population, namely students graduating from university; whose patterns of residence may for some time be transitory in nature. The second is to provide some details from a small sample of graduates on the issues raised in the transition from undergraduate study. The paper will tackle the two issues in order. First, an examination of recent methods of qualitative data collection which the development of information technology, in the form of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC), has allowed is undertaken. Second, the results of using one of these techniques (asynchronous e-mail) to gather information on the transition from undergraduate study are reported. In addition, advantages and disadvantages that can arise in the use of these new techniques are reported. This paper engages with the overall theme of transition in a number of ways. First, the students are in a process of transition in status; from undergraduate to graduate. Second, in many cases, they may well be in transition in terms of location; from the university location either back home, or away to a new location. Third, they are in transition in terms of activity; either seeking or into employment or engaging in further study at a higher level. Finally, they may be in transition in relation to developing new social networks. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0802116

In June 2005, we joined about one hundred other participants in the No One Is Illegal March on Ottawa. This 200-kilometer march was organized by Solidarity Across Borders and non-status immigrants living in Canada. This paper tells the story of this march and of the people who participated in the week-long event, which was part of a movement to defend the rights of non-status immigrants in Canada. Our desire to tell this story stems from the fact that we are still actively participating in this march in many different ways. We would like to trace some of the connections between what is really two stories: one that relates the actual march, and another that describes a documentary we made and a research project we are conducting on the march. Finally, this paper gives us an opportunity to experiment with a style of writing and publication that allows us to use both images and text in order to bring seldom-heard voices—those of non-status immigrants—into the public sphere. In so doing, we wish to present not only some of our work, but also some of the people who were involved in the march and whose thoughts and actions inspired our work. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0802293

Performative Social Science provides the research scientist with a much needed platform to move beyond traditional approaches to data collection, analysis and the presentation of study findings towards a response to research questions that closely resonates with the raw materials at hand. For the Performative Social Scientist's voice to be heard, new ways must be found to consider how best to represent the social world, relaxing longstanding and rigid qualitative research frameworks in favour of more contemporary and flexible approaches to working that welcome inter-disciplinary practice. By re-defining the theoretical and paradigmatic boundaries of our studies we can then encourage others to consider a range of alternative positions from which to view the world. The paper embraces the potential such a platform offers by presenting one Holocaust survivor's lived experiences of these extraordinary events including internment in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Through a visual and textual journey that employs photographs and poetic representations derived from one "research conversation" with the survivor, a "photo-textual montage" aims to engender a more empathic response to survivor testimony. The paper also attempts a novel juxtaposition of images and words to present a richer understanding of the researcher's relationship with the survivor, the research process and research outputs. In effect, the paper maps aspects of the research process in "coming to know" the data in chronological, temporal and spatial frames whilst emphasising the importance of presentation style, format and layout. This paper makes visible what is often invisible in more traditional approaches—the researchers own personal journey and the insights that this affords. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0802285

This paper approaches visionary poetry from the point of view of an experiential observer. The paper explores the "poetic silence" that occurs in the moments before the poem is written, attempting to capture the moments in which a thought of poetry is formulated. This silence is defined by RILKE (1950, p.20) as "nameless", thus may pose a challenge for a paper that uses names, i.e. written words, to convey ideas. To assist in this challenge I shall use visuals in form of short films that were created as part of my research. Visuals seem most suitable for demonstrating visionary poetry, which relies on visions and imagination. Creating films played a role in developing my understanding of the topic. Hence, I shall share with the reader some relevant insights regarding research practice that were brought to my attention in the process of making the films. I will examine three elements that characterise the process of poetic activity: Thought, Emotion, and Inner knowledge. Thought transforms emotion to words; emotion stirs the impetus to create; and inner knowledge is a higher source from beyond the poet him/herself, which can be seen as a spiritual force that is the meaning and the energy of creativity itself. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0802261

The environments and landscapes in which we live and work say much about who we are and how we act, yet there is little in the literature that considers Primary Care professionals' reflections on workspace and its impact on practice. The paper addresses this lacuna by presenting the findings of Phase II of a novel, two-year, mixed-methods study of UK General Practitioner (GP) workspace. Phase II employed photo-biographic-elicitation interviews supported by photo-biographic data from Phase I, to examine 8 GPs' understandings of their workspace in relation to professional practice and self-identity. Through distillation and summation of datasets, the paper establishes the pivotal role of workspace in Primary Care. Unlike many qualitative studies, the paper emphasizes ambiguity and difference rather than certainty and similarity as characteristics that prove to be of major significance in understanding the particularity of GP workspace. Like CHAUCER's Canterbury Tales, GPs' individual stories are set as a sequence of tales within what might be called a frame narrative—the overarching narrative of British general practice providing the frame for the particular stories of the practitioners. Although working environments may be similarly structured, how GPs perceive, perform within, and move through their own setting is unique to each. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs080227