Nigel Fielding

Computer-aided qualitative data analysis : theory, methods and practice

Introduction - Udo Kelle An Overview of Computer-Aided Methods in Qualitative Research PART ONE: GENERAL METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES Computer Use in Qualitative Research and Issues of Validity - Udo Kelle and Heather Laurie User Experiences of Qualitative Data Analysis Software - Raymond M Lee and Nigel G Fielding Grounded Theory as an Emerging Paradigm for Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis - Marrku Lonkila Different Functions of Coding in the Analysis of Textual Data - John Seidel and Udo Kelle PART TWO: COMPUTERS AND QUALITATIVE THEORY BUILDING Introduction: Using Linkages and Networks for Theory Building - Gerald Prein and Udo Kelle in discussion with Lyn Richards and Tom Richards Reducing Fragmentation in Qualitative Research - Ian Dey Using Hierarchical Categories in Qualitative Data Analysis - Tom Richards and Lyn Richards Designing and Refining Hierarchical Coding Frames - Luis Araujo PART THREE: COMPUTERS AND QUALITATIVE HYPOTHESIS EXAMINATION Introduction - Udo Kelle in discussion with Ernest Sibert, Anne Shelly, Sharlene Hesse-Biber and G[um]unter L Huber Hypothesis Examination in Qualitative Research Using Logic Programming for Hypothesis Generation and Refinement - Ernest Sibert and Anne Shelly Hypothesis Testing in Computer-Aided Qualitative Data Analysis - Sharlene Hesse-Biber and Paul Dupuis Qualitative Hypothesis Examination and Theory Building - G[um]unter L Huber PART FOUR: COMPUTERS AND TRIANGULATION Introduction - Gerald Prein and Udo Kuckartz in discussion with Edeltraud Roller, Charles C Ragin and Udo Kelle Between Quality and Quantity Case-Oriented Quantification - Udo Kuckartz Hermeneutic-Classificatory Content Analysis - Edeltraud Roller, Rainer Mathes and Thomas Eckert Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis to Study Configurations - Charles C Ragin An Overview of Software - Gerald Prein, Udo Kelle and Katherine Bird

The SAGE handbook of online research methods

The chapter will provide: an overview of geographical referencing and the importance of geographically referenced data; examples of geographical data linkage and mapping, including some case studies; and a discussion of the creation of geographical datasets and of how work with online geographical data relates to other elements of the geographical information industry. We explain how geographical information systems (GIS) are relevant, and guide readers who wish to find out more about GIS per se to relevant sources that provide an introduction to GIS. Our discussion of the emergence of online tools for geographical data is subdivided into: Data sources (e.g. NeSS, US Factfinder); Geographical linkage (directories, lookups, e.g. GeoConvert); Mapping (both online, using virtual globes and mapping sites, and offline using data from the internet); and more specialist spatial analysis tools. In further guidance for those seeking to apply these tools we highlight the resources provided by Geo-Refer.

Triangulation and Mixed Methods Designs Data Integration With New Research Technologies

Data integration is a crucial element in mixed methods analysis and conceptualization. It has three principal purposes: illustration, convergent validation (triangulation), and the development of analytic density or “richness.” This article discusses such applications in relation to new technologies for social research, looking at three innovative forms of data integration that rely on computational support: (a) the integration of geo-referencing technologies with qualitative software, (b) the integration of multistream visual data in mixed methods research, and (c) the integration of data from qualitative and quantitative methods.

From Community to Communicative Policing: “Signal Crimes” and the Problem of Public Reassurance

In this paper the concept of ‘signal crimes’ is proposed to capture the social semiotic processes by which particular types of criminal and disorderly conduct have a disproportionate impact upon fear of crime. Drawing upon the wider social scientific literature on risk perception, a sense of how and why different crime types might be possessed of different signal values is provided and some of the implications for current police practice outlined.

Reassurance Policing, Community Policing and Measuring Police Performance

The central theme of this article is that current police performance measures are largely inadequate for capturing many dimensions of community policing practice. Focusing upon a recent innovation in policing strategy in the United Kingdom, that of reassurance policing, an argument is developed for alternative ways of thinking about police performance and how it can be gauged. Drawing upon ideas and insights from social research methodology, it is proposed that a more qualitative approach to police performance offers the potential for the development of more meaningful forms of evaluation.

Policing by the public

Shapland and Vagg look at the nature of informal social control. Their conclusions challenge existing myths about rural and urban areas and offer a new approach to thinking about how policing should be conducted.

Black and blue: an analysis of the influence of race on being stopped by the police

This article addresses the debate over the disproportionate representation of black people in the criminal justice system, with particular reference to the link between a persons race and the process of being stopped on the street by the police. On the basis of a participant observation study of routine police patrol in inner city London, the article explores the influence of race in relation to citizen and officer demeanour, and on the actions taken by police in initiating, processing and terminating a stop. Demeanour and process variables are derived from quantified observational data recorded on codified observation schedules from 213 police stops involving 319 members of the public. Among the findings reported, blacks prove over two and a half times more likely to be stopped than their presence in the local population would suggest, with a higher disproportion in the case of young black men. However, blacks and whites prove equally likely to be calm and civil to police at contact and during processing, and there are scant differences in police demeanour and action toward the two groups.

Qualitative Data Analysis: Representations of a Technology: a Comment on Coffey, Holbrook and Atkinson

Whether computer assisted data collection methods should be used for survey data collection is no longer an issue. Most professional research organizations, commercial, government and academic, are adopting these new methods with enthusiasm. Computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) is most prevalent, and computer assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) is rapidly gaining in popularity. Also, new forms of electronic reporting of data using computers, telephones and voice recognition technology are emerging. This paper begins with a taxonomy of current computer assisted data collection methods. It then reviews conceptual and theoretical arguments and empirical evidence on such topics as: (1) respondents and interviewer acceptance of new techniques, (2) effect of computer assisted interviewing on data quality, (3) consequences for survey costs and (4) centralized vs. decentralized deployment of CATI.

Resistance and Adaptation to Criminal Identity: Using Secondary Analysis to Evaluate Classic Studies of Crime and Deviance

Qualitative data offer rich insights into the social world, whether alone or in tandem with statistical analysis. However, qualitative data are costly to collect and analyse. Moreover, it is a commonplace that only a portion of the data so labouriously collected is the subject of final analysis and publication. Secondary analysis is a well-established method in quantitative research and is raising its profile in application to qualitative data. It has a particular part to play when research is on sensitive topics and/or hard-to-reach populations, as in the example considered here. This article contributes to discussion of the potential and constraints of secondary analysis of qualitative data by reporting the outcome of the secondary analysis of a key study in the sociology of prison life, Cohen and Taylors research on the long-term imprisonment of men in maximum security. The article re-visits Cohen and Taylors original analysis and demonstrates support for an alternative, if complementary, conceptualisation, using archived data from the original study. Among the methodological issues discussed are the recovery of the context of the original fieldwork and the role of secondary analysis in an incremental approach to knowledge production.

Mixed methods research in the real world

The article discusses the increasing use of mixed methods designs in applied research, particularly work commissioned by government. The roots of this trend are discussed in the UK and US context, drawing out particularly the implications for qualitative methods, the role of benchmarks and quality standards, and the implications for critical research. Examples from socio‐legal research and research on social aspects of health and illness illustrate the argument.