Swiss Summer School 1998

Véronique Mottier
Qualitative Data Analysis: Interpretive Research Strategies

Véronique Mottier

Véronique Mottier teaches in the Department of Political Science at the University of Geneva. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and has previously taught qualitative methodology workshops at the Universities of Cambridge, Teeside and Loughborough (UK). Her published work has appeared in Economy and Society, West European Politics, and other journals. Her research interests include: (Methodology) interpretive methodologies; textual analysis/Foucauldian discourse analysis; (Substantive) the politics of sexuality; citizenship in the context of direct democracy.

Workshop contents and objectives

The aim of this workshop is to explore the use of interpretive research strategies in social science research. Broadly, interpretive methodologies are grounded in a social constructionist perspective on social life, i.e., they remind social scientists of the constructed nature of the social "facts" that are analysed. From this perspective, the workshop will examine a number of different though related interpretive methodologies. The specific focus will be on textual/discourse analysis, interview techniques, hermeneutics, and ethnomethodology. Although the lectures and readings will cover validity and reliability issues, the main emphasis of the workshop is on practical applications of qualitative research methods.

Bibliography

Basic text/overview
Silverman, D. (1993) Interpreting Qualitative Data: Methods for Analysing Text, Talk and Interaction. London: Sage.

Berg,Bruce L. (1995) (2nd. ed.) Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences. Needham Heights, Mass.: Allyn & Bacon.

Remedial Reading
Denzin, N.K. & Y.S. Lincoln (eds) (1994) Handbook of Qualitative Research. London: Sage.

Prerequisites

No particular prerequisites are needed for this course, but it is strongly recommended to do the suggested preparatory readings (see bibliography)

 

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