HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.qualrs-l
Date:         Thu, 23 Jul 1992 00:54:00 PDT
              <QUALRS-L@UGA.BITNET>
From:         sally jacoby 310-206-7934 <IHW1051@UCLAMVS.BITNET>
Subject:      quanting the qual

Peter:  The statement 'X asked more questions than Y' is a quantitative
observation whether there are frequency numbers or ratios plugged in or not,
in my view.  The issue is what one's research is all about, not only
methodologically but also in terms of what you end up concluding.  If, at the
end of one's study, there are basically statements like 'X is more common than
Y among Z-type people,' e.g., then the inquiry seems to me to
have been quantitatively focused.  If , at the end of the research, what you
have are detailed descriptions and interpretations of processes, interactions,
exemplars, etc., that's a qualitative study, whether you used software to
manage your data or not.  Of course quantitative observations can be part of
qualitative studies and vice versa.  Isn't is really a matter of what you
want to find out, how you go about it, and what you end up concluding at the
level of the enterprise as a whole? The temptation of certain text management
programs is that they draw us into a quantitative mode through coding and
counting and, at the end of the day, that's where many researchers leave off
making observations and drawing conclusions.  I don't care if it IS
data from spontaneous interaction or interviews--it's positivistic and scien-
tistic if that's the main level of the conclusions.

A second issue is what do you mean 'X asked more questions than Y'? As Emanuel
Schegloff has said, what's your denominator? in the stretch of talk I
recorded? out of the total number of questions asked by both participants? per
unit of X? And when you decide what the denominator is, is the observation
meaningful?  If (this is Manny's example), X laughed more often than Y per Z
time unit of conversation (this is taken from an actual study), why should
this be meaningful?  People do not laugh "per minute"--that is a qualitative
observation. What meaning does the denominator "of the total number of
questions asked" have if questions (whatever they are--this too needs
unpacking) are also generated out of locally occasioned interactional
environments in the doing of particular types of activities.  And indeed such
an observation might be connected with the participants understanding that
they are engaged in just such an activity.

The quantitative observations which text management programs allow us
to make can only be made meaningful with a good qualitative grip on what is
going on.

Sally Jacoby
also UCLA Program in Applied Linguistics
IHW1051@mvs.oac.ucla.edu
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Date:         Fri, 24 Jul 1992 15:41:54 EDT
              <QUALRS-L@UGA.BITNET>
From:         Mark Peterson <ST402851@BROWNVM.BITNET>
Subject:      RE: hermeneutics
              24 Jul 1992 11:17:38 EST from <SCHWAND@UCS.INDIANA.EDU>

Re: S Reynolds query on hermeneutics

Don't miss Paul Ricouer's essay on social life as text.
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Date:         Fri, 24 Jul 1992 13:03:00 CST
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From:         KELLYP@SLUVCA.SLU.EDU
Subject:      Re: hermeneutics

The Titles of the two works that Tom recommends are:
        _Understanding and Social Inquiry._ (1977) McCarthy, Thomas A.
        and Dallmayr, Fred R.  University of Notre Dame Press.

and...
        Bleicher, Joseph.  _Contemporary hermeneutics:  hermeneutics as
        method, philosophy and critique.
Patrick
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Date:         Thu, 30 Jul 1992 14:43:00 CDT
              <QUALRS-L@UGA.BITNET>
From:         "tk0jut1@mvs.cso.niu.edu jim thomas" <TK0JUT1@NIU.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: journals

"Diana B. Putman" <diana@U-SHIZUOKA-KEN.AC.JP>  writes:

   >Could you please provide a little information about Journal of
   >Contemporary Ethnography?

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, formerly Urban Life,
publishes a broad range of ethnographic articles. The current
editors:  Patti Adler and Peter Adler

Address:  JCE
          Dept of Sociology
          University of Denver
          Denver, CO 80208


jt
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Date:         Wed, 29 Jul 1992 09:36:18 EST
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From:         "Tom Schwandt, 5-0278" <SCHWAND@UCS.INDIANA.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Help Request

Re: the new request for help with software for data analysis.  The best
starting point I'm aware of is a book by Renata Tesch, Qualitative
Research:  Analysis types and Software Tools.  It reviews a variety of
current software packages and it's bib. contains other useful references.
Further, Renata runs a consulting "company" specializing in this kind
of software; contact her at 73425 Hilltop Rd., Desert Hot Springs, CA
92240.  Sorry but I don't have a phone number handy.  T. Schwandt,
Indiana Univ.
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Date:         Mon, 20 Jul 1992 23:19:00 CDT
              <QUALRS-L@UGA.BITNET>
From:         "tk0jut1@mvs.cso.niu.edu jim thomas" <TK0JUT1@NIU.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: back to critical theory !!!

I'm finding the discussions of critical theory a bit hard to follow.
Part of my confusion rests on the distinction between "subjective" and
"objective." I would call most, perhaps nearly all, social science
objective. "Subjective" is a label that's been applied especially to
qualitative research, and the label tends to stigmatize it with an
image of something short of "real science." Understanding the
subjectivity of others should not be assumed to mean that such an
understanding is itself subjective.  If the dichotomy refers to focus
of attention rather than perspective of the researcher, it might be
more useful.  I'm considered primarily an "interpretive" social
scientist grounded implicitly in critical theory, and I'd put myself
in that upper right-hand quadrant of "objective" and "humanist," even
though the latter is a rather forced label.

I'm also a bit confused on what is meant by critical theory.  I see
secondary and tertiary sources cited, but not the primary works of key
exmplars in the field. Is the term being used a bit more broadly than
used by "critical theorists" (which I understand to mean the works of
Frankfurt Theorists, Habermas, and their epigones)?  If so, then I
especially recommend the works of Lyotard (esp.  The Postmodern
Condition) and Habermas on postmodernism and his ambitious multivolume
Theory of Communicative Action as a way to sort out the
epistemological issues of critical theory as they relate to a symbolic
social order (or qualitative research).

Perhaps somebody could state in a succinct sentence or two what's at
stake in this discussion.

Jim
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Date:         Wed, 22 Jul 1992 08:16:42 -0700
              <QUALRS-L@UGA.BITNET>
From:         Bruce Jones <bjones@WEBER.UCSD.EDU>
Subject: Re: Computers & Qualitative Research
Comments: To: QUALRS-L%UGA.BITNET@VM.USC.EDU

>From: MHORNEY%OREGON.BITNET@VM.USC.EDU
>Date:         Tue, 21 Jul 1992 14:12:00 PDT
>Subject:      Computers & Qualitative Research
>
>Please do not make the mistake in believing, as unfortunately many if not
>most people do, that computers are intrinsically concerned with, or even
>really based upon numbers.

Computers are electronic devices that respond to two states: on and
off.  This is where the binary arithmetic of 1s and 0s comes from.
You can translate those 1s and 0s into 16-bit arrays and derive a
hexidecmial coding scheme that allows you to differentiate between
the various keys on a typewriter keyboard, and you can extend that
addressing scheme so that you get function and control and
alternative keys, but, at the center, computers are simply machines
for crunching numbers - however they may be coded to match the
alphabet.

> ... Had A, B, and word processing
>been the initial applications, we might have a radically different
>cultural notion of what computing is about. History is contingent.

But that would not have changed the physics of electronics, or what
computers are capable of doing.

>I conceive of a computer as a machine for conjering, storing and
>manipulating symbols. What the symbols mean is entirely in the eye
>of the beholder.

Precisely. But, as Joeseph Weizenbaum so cogently notes in his book:
*Computer Power and Human Reason*, those symbols still have to be
capable of being encoded, which, to a certain extent, predetermines
what kinds of questions one can ask of and get answered by computer
databases.

>In qualitative research projects I have found computers very
>useful in a variety of ways, but especially in organizatizing coding
>categories. Instead of marking up and then cutting up my transcripts
>and notes, I manipulating them electronically.

This may be the crux of our disagreement.  I don't understand coding
or the results of compiling coded data as an exercises in qualitative
research or methods.  Content analysis is a quantitative method as
far as I'm concerned.

Computers are very good at searching and matching things.  I can find
out how many times the people I interview talked about vax135 or who
paid the phone bills for usenet.  But there is no way I've been able
to find to get the computer to tell me whose memory is more correct
when it comes to disagreements in the history of the net.

bj

-
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Date:         Thu, 23 Jul 1992 14:49:00 EST
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From:         MYLIN@UTOROISE.BITNET
Subject:      Re: Computers & Qualitative Research

Please unsubscribe me; cannot deal with all the mail.  Thanks.
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Date:         Mon, 27 Jul 1992 14:58:00 EDT
              <QUALRS-L@UGA.BITNET>
From:         MARRUSF@CLEMSON.BITNET
Subject:      intercultural communication

i am new to this list and am interested in intercultural comm-
unication. Specfically, I am doing research on intercultural symbolism
m in spirituality.  How do various cultures use symbolism to
define spirituality?
I realize this topic is broad and can incorporate many
perspectives.  For example, my most recent work was on
gender images in the tarot cards.
Thanks in advance,
Fran Marrus
MARRUSF @ CLEMSON.BITNET
Dept of Performing ARts
Clemson University
Clemson, SC  29634-1505 (USA)
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Date:         Fri, 24 Jul 1992 17:01:47 EDT
              <QUALRS-L@UGA.BITNET>
From:         SED91LN@BUACCA.BITNET
Subject: Re: Shank: Hitting home

Pam: I think Eisner's book is outstanding, but too long for a tutorial. But
this book captures the ideas I mentioned. I use it in class and the students
seem to like it. Bruce
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Date:         Mon, 27 Jul 1992 09:19:50 -0200
              <QUALRS-L@UGA.BITNET>
From:         golang@OPENU.AC.IL
Comments: To: qualrs-l@uga.cc.uga.edu

Dear netters,
I'm addressing you a note on behalf of a friend of mine:
"Please pay attention to the existence a High - IQ - Society, names:
INTERTEL.
Anyone can apply for a membership in this society if his IQ score, on
a standard supervised IQ - Test, used in his country, is in the top 1%
of the population.
You can send your application to:
Acceptance Committee
P.O.Box 1083
Tulsa, OK  74101
U.S.A.
Thanks for your attention and good luck ! "
Thanks.
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Date:         Mon, 27 Jul 1992 12:21:00 MST
              <QUALRS-L@UGA.BITNET>
From:         JIMANDE@CC.UTAH.EDU
Subject:      Re: back to critical theory !!!
Comments: To: QUALRS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu

A few thoughts in reply to JenningT (sorry no signature on the message):
I think it is possible examine the process of labeling without calling
the whole semiotic project into question.  We have had several queries
on the list about what "is"  this theory or that theory.  My point was
that theory is not a thing, not an archive but a living body of discursive
practices.  To call it theory X is to fix it in a certain way for soem
some purpose.  I wonder what those purposes might be?

The comment relating labeling which included the phrase "the fact the
I label" is, of course no more fact than any other label.  What it does
is position labeling outside an ethical purview and invokes scientistic
objectivity for what is obviously a very politically astute move.  (Sorry
about the typos in this paragraph.  That too is a label which allows me
to cover a multitude of sins.)

My reason for raising these issues is a sense of concern for what folks
do with labels of theory.  there is first the pretense that the label
maps onto some unproblematic clearly bounded phenomenon which can be
describe in a couple of pages (or better a couple of sentences).  This
pretense is always written in the disembodied voice of the television
announcer who is all knowing describer.  These labels are often used
by us to describe what we dont
have to do:  I don't have to read that.  I don't have to accept that.
As I said it's not an innocent act (even if natural)  I'd like
folks who write the essentializations to reveal from whence they write.
Jim Anderson
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Date:         Wed, 29 Jul 1992 12:47:00 PDT
              <QUALRS-L@UGA.BITNET>
From:         Peter Coughlan <IHW1IIH@UCLAMVS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: Help Request

Judith:  I don't know how this discussion is set up, but I'm wondering if
there isn't a way to collect information about software for Qual. analysis
and put it in a file that everyone could access.  It seems that a request
for info. comes across once every few weeks, and that if we had the info.
stored, newcomers could be told just to get that file.

Peter Coughlan
UCLA Applied Linguistics












------------------------------TEXT-OF-YOUR-MAIL--------------------------------

> On Wed, 29 Jul 1992 09:36:18 EST Tom Schwandt, 5-0278 said:
> >Re: the new request for help with software for data analysis.  The best
> >starting point I'm aware of is a book by Renata Tesch, Qualitative
> >Research:  Analysis types and Software Tools.  It reviews a variety of
> >current software packages and it's bib. contains other useful references.
> >Further, Renata runs a consulting "company" specializing in this kind
> >of software; contact her at 73425 Hilltop Rd., Desert Hot Springs, CA
> >92240.  Sorry but I don't have a phone number handy.  T. Schwandt,
> >Indiana Univ.
>
> Renata's phone number is (619)329-7026.  She has a chapter in another
> recent book my students have found useful, "Using Computers in Qualitative
> Research," edited by Nigel G. Fielding and Raymond M. Lee (London:  Sage,
> 1991).  j.
>
> *************************************************************
> * Judith Preissle-Goetz                                     *
> * Professor of Anthropology and Education                   *
> * Social Science Education              Voice: 404-542-6489 *
> * Tucker Hall                             Fax: 404-542-3282 *
> * University of Georgia                  BITNET: JGOETZ@UGA *
> * Athens, GA  30602         Internet: jgoetz@uga.cc.uga.edu *
> *************************************************************
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Date:         Tue, 21 Jul 1992 11:11:51 CDT
              <QUALRS-L@UGA.BITNET>
From:         jean <SOCW9V@UHUPVM1.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: back to critical theory !!!

Daybreak!   Thanks, Yvonna.  Now I can follow along.  And, yes, I
agree that two-by-two matrices cannot describe the universe.  I can also
fantasize that many qual types would find the notion of themselves fitting
into the matrix as abhorrent.

Jean
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Date:         Mon, 27 Jul 1992 09:04:00 EDT
              <QUALRS-L@UGA.BITNET>
From:         GOODALH@CLEMSON.BITNET
Subject:      What is critique, continued

Jim Thomas writes a careful, thoughtful defense for the emancipatory
function of critical ethnography.  I disagree, in principle, with
nothing that he advocates.  What I do disagree with, however, is
both more overt and more subtle than the case he presents.
The overt problem that all ethnographers inherent is the vast issue
of colonizing the Other(s) who form the subjects of our work.  I'm
sure that early missionaries thought they were improving the lot
of "savage" tribes by bringing Christianity to them; similarly,
cultures studied by academics (including Jim and I) are changed
as a result of the contact in ways that are often subtle and
nuanced.  Our presence is their change; our work gets published,
we get tenured, and those we studied continue on, having to put
up with us "speaking for them" or whatever else we do on their
colonized behalf.  There are no easy answers in any of this.
Ethnographers must accept some responsibility for our intrusions,
and we are learning how to give voice and space to those we study.
Now it is fairly safe to say, as Jim does, that nobody would argue
that sexism or racism are conditions that benefit from emancipatory
postures; I am less certain--for example--about organizations that
I've written about with people in them who have now become part of
the story I saw there, or in some cases, helped to create.  And
I am not speaking here of something as trite as mere liberal guilt,
but something more like what James Agee wrote about in *Let Us Now
Praise Famous Men*:  "the weight of human existence."  How much
responsibility do I have, for example, for encouraging a rock n
roll musician to pursue his bliss when that particular road ends
up nearly bankrupting him?  As a colleague of mine put it:  Be
careful encouraging others to live the dream you don't have the
courage to pursue yourself.
How true.
So, back to the issue of emancipation.  There are, for me, more
overt and subtle issues bound up in that research posture.
Academics are--despite our haircuts or cool clothing--cultural
elites whose duty (at least for me) is to pass along traditions
as well as to challenge them.  Within that tension lies a world
of possibilities, but when we lean too much toward what we think
is absolutely right and on-center, we should remember that what is
centered in our world is very often off-centered in the worlds of
Others.
Finally, I think Jim and I have reached agreement about fiction
and science as genres of writing equally capable of providing useful
understandings about the social world.  Now perhaps we should turn
our agreement into an emancipatory stand, eh?  Say, toward journal
editors and their sponsoring organizations that privilege science
over other forms of inquiry and expression?
What say you to that, Jim?
And how about the rest of y'all out there in lurker land?
Dr. Bud
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Date:         Wed, 22 Jul 1992 13:39:03 -0700
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From:         JENNINGT@CGSVAX.CLAREMONT.EDU
Subject:      Re: Computers & Qualitative Research
Comments: To: QUALRS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu

Mark Horney, tell us about EntryWay?  How is it different from what is
already available, how is it similar?

Todd Jennings
Cal. State, San Bernardino
JENNINGT@CLAREGRAD
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Date:         Thu, 23 Jul 1992 17:01:45 EDT
              <QUALRS-L@UGA.BITNET>
From:         SED91LN@BUACCA.BITNET
Subject: Re: Shank: Hitting home

Penny Oldfather expresses concern that gatekeepers are not aware of
or sympathetic to qualitative research. I suspect the problem goes much
deeper--most of our colleagues have but a dim view of what qualitative
research is all about. The prevailing view, I submit is: if it has numbers,
it's quantitative; if it has categories, it's qualitative. Some
similar views are appeared on the net from time to time.

I suggest that what is needed is a first-rate tutorial piece on what
qualitative research is all about. It would address questions such as:
What are the basic assumptions underlying qualitative research? What is
it that distinguishes qualitative research from quantitative research?
Why is it that we don't find terms/concepts like reliability, general-
izability, validity and the like in qualitative research, or at least
not used as they are in quantitative research. If there are different
approaches to qualitative research, what distinguishes them? How is it
that the basic approach to research drives the methodology used? Why
is it often important for the researcher's background to be appreciated
by the reader in order to better understand the findings? And so forth.r

A while back I asked the net if anyone knew of such an article. No one
offered any suggestions, although a few offered some ideas. Since I
have a critical need to assist my BU colleagues in understanding qualitative
research, I am attempting to write such an article. Any and all suggestions
would be most appreciated. I do not think I'm the best qualified to under
take this task, and if one of you out there has progressed further, or
wants to take on the project, please let me know. The bottem line as I see
it is this: until researchers in qualitative research educate our friends
and colleagues, we cannot expect them to understand what we have to say or
why we are saying it.

Please reply to me privately unless you think the entire list will
benefit. Thanks in advance. Bruce Fraser
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Date:         Fri, 24 Jul 1992 16:50:50 -0400
Reply-To:     aa248@yfn.ysu.edu
              <QUALRS-L@UGA.BITNET>
From:         Nicholas Sturm <aa248@YFN.YSU.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Qualitative-Quantitative

                       Qualitative and Quantitative

  These may not always be used in the presence/absence or number/statistical
reduction.  In the field of genetics "quantitative" analysis was applied
when a property could not be counted or placed in discrete categories, i.e.,
red, purple, blue as flower colors, or five fingers vs more than five
fingers (polydactyly).  If one had to measure it with a continuum divided
by arbitary intervals it was termed quantitative.  If the feature itself
fell into what appeared to be naturally divided classes it was qualitative.

  Chi-square was a statistic often applied to "qualitative" data while a
t of F test would more often be applied to a continuum that had been
divided using a arbitrary ruler.

  Sometimes a usage from afar will help in viewing one's own applications.


--
  * aa248@yfn.ysu.edu *
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Date:         Tue, 21 Jul 1992 10:07:30 CDT
              <QUALRS-L@UGA.BITNET>
From:         George Balch <U08812@UICVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: ecopy,finally...

On Tue, 21 Jul 1992 09:43:00 CDT Gary Shank said:
>sorry, i thought i was sending to a person....oops
>gary
YOU DID, GARY. TO MANY PERSONS. FORTUITOUSLY FOR ME. I REALLY ENJOYED THE
PAPER!

George Balch
u08812@uicvm
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Date:         Tue, 21 Jul 1992 11:14:50 CDT
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From:         jean <SOCW9V@UHUPVM1.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: ecopy,finally...

Count me as another person who's glad you sent it to all of us.

Jean
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