This article examines the method of virtual ethnography – or “netnography” – as used by scholars of organization and management studies. It describes the main problems organizational anthropologists may face when conducting research online. The issues discussed include cultural heterogeneity of virtual communities, the non-fundamental differences of virtual ethnography and ethnography, specifics of interactions, nativity, problems of observation, trouble with anthropological reflexivity, as well as the topics of trust and identity enactment.
The paper is a report of research project concerning qualitative methods in pain assessment. The linguistic analysis of patients with chronic pain narratives was done on the first stage. It was showed that pain is communicated in an individualized way – people use different grammatical categories and stylistic means talking about their pain experience. On the second stage of the project the adequacy of McGill Pain Questionnaire in pain assessment and diagnosis was investigated. Conclusions are connected with human experience, broadly speaking, and scientific method used in psychology.
Hungarian football used to be in the first line of the international arena but for the last five decades a steady and strong setback has been a characteristic feature. The main purpose of this paper is to discover the major problems related to the education of young players and to make suggestions to improve the current situation. The study is based on a research in which three different but complementary methods, called "triangulation" were used: fieldwork, content analysis and in-depth interviews. The results show that although sport had always been the area which served political interests, this situation has dramatically changed after 1989-1990. Since then moral and economic crisis could be observed and this has resulted in the collapse of the Hungarian football. Concerning the talent care program there is no a common educational project for young players. This could be explained by the lack of cooperation between professionals who believe that they have different professional and financial interests and act accordingly. In conclusion it can be stated that success could only be reached if politics and the central budget were be independent and the cooperation between decision makers and experts in football were stronger. The unskilled managers and coaches responsible for the education of young players should be exchanged for real professionals.
The national security strategy is based on a holistic and systematic perception of the future. Strategic thinking requires rational and generative thought processes in formulating and conceptualizing long-term development trends and ensuring security. The text raises the attempt to find the relationship between strategic thinking and making effective strategic decisions.
The focus of the article is on data-self technology in digital entertainment - virtual entities that replicate and/or are influenced by players’ behaviors and actions, working as agential mirrors on the screen. Little efforts have been done in investigating their potential in social research and educational technology; however, data-selves can serve as promising self-revealing tools toward personal identities and narrations. In order to enlighten their effectiveness, a multidisciplinary framework led by the core concepts of “narrative identity” and “discursive-practical consciousness” is advanced. The proposal has been tested (pre-post interviews and play sessions) with an empirical exploration involving n:32 participants and the video games Black and White 2 and Forza: Motorsprint 5, which include data-self features. Results show that this technology can make a difference in engaging and stimulating subjects’ interest and feedback, but further researches are needed to deepen its scope and range of application.
The issue that sociologists, psychologists and anthropologists are still facing is developing new and effective methods of qualitative research into advertising – one of the most important elements of the modern world of broadly defined consumption. This text presents not only a detailed description of visual analysis method in the qualitative research but also a proposal of an authorial and universal tool for advertising messages analysis while providing empirical examples of its application.
The main aim of the article is to identify the capabilities and constraints of using CAQDAS (Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software) programs in qualitative data analysis. Our considerations are based on the personal experiences gained while conducting the research projects using the methodology of grounded theory (GT) and the NVivo 8 program. In presented article we focused on relations between the methodological principles of grounded theory and the technical possibilities of NVivo 8. The paper presents our opinion about the most important options available in NVivo 8 and their application in the studies based on the methodology of grounded theory.
The aim of the article is to determine the theoretical-methodological guidelines used by EU scientists in their dance-therapeutic research. The study is carried out on the basis of qualitative research methods and general scientific approaches, which, within the framework of the research project “Theoretical and methodological foundations of development of choreographic-pedagogical education in Ukraine”, allow introducing into the native scientific space theoretical and methodological guidelines and experiencing in organizing dance-therapeutic training of choreographers. It is concluded that methodological guidelines for research in the field of dance therapy can be general scientific approaches and analytical methods, in particular: dialectical (makes it possible to specify the dichotomy “body-soul” in choreotherapeutic activity in their inseparable unity); historical-genetic (allows tracing the use of therapeutic properties of dance at all stages of civilization development); problem-chronological in combination with comparative (provides an opportunity to identify the interdependence of the theoretical and practical aspects of dance therapy in different European countries at different stages of its formation and development); socio-cultural in combination with structural-functional (helps to find out the social-psychological functions of dance therapy). It is proved that conceptual provisions of dance therapy are based on universal philosophical categories “movement”, “time” and “space”, which are specified as motority, temporality, and spatiality. The main philosophical concept is the physicality that determines the sensual nature of human being. It is argued that through the dance and movement the inner world of each person becomes tangible. In the EU countries, there are diverse areas of dance therapy (choreotherapy) that differ in prevailing of certain techniques, in particular psychiatric, ergo-therapeutic, socio-psychological, art-therapeutic, dance-movement (Human Structural Dance therapy, Laban Movement Analysis, rhythmic movement and dance movement therapy, etc.). It is emphasized that the search for methodological foundations of the native studies in the field of dance therapy is just starting. They should be based on both general scientific approaches and on the methodological apparatus of artistic and comparative education, art and ergotherapy, and further studies will be devoted to these issues.
This study presents detailed systematics of quality assessment methods for marketing organizations diving it into three groups: qualitative, quantitative and qualitative-quantitative (mixed) methods. The first group includes methods such as: marketing audit, marketing excellence evaluation and review oftheethical and social responsibility of the organization. The second group is: sales analysis, market share analysis, impact analysis with marketing expenditures on sales area, financial analysis, profitability and efficiency control, marketing effectiveness ranking and observation on customer satisfaction. The last group includes methods: balanced scorecard and marketing benchmark. Approach towards assessing the quality of organization's marketing activities requires using one particular method. Due to big number of existing methods for assessing the quality of marketing activities, a question arises: which one will allow us fully assess the activity.
In my contribution I want to investigate, from a theoretical point of view but also with methodological and practical consequences, the qualitative role of metaphor in social research. As tool able to improve and facilitate the visualization of complex ideas and states of mind, this rhetorical figure permits to obtain more information from interviewed people about topics hard to access in common interviews. This goal can be achieved by the build of the so called “tomen”, an artifact/experience design created by the subject(s) interviewed which represents a gate point from which explore hidden dimensions, individual as diffused. Furthermore, the metaphor offers a strong link to another concept that now in sociology needs an operative dimension, the game: a buzz word that I intend as social frame of experience positioned in an artificial setting, a “magic circle”, able to represent in its operations a collective metaphor which gives us enormous possibilities to configure and set the ground of analysis.
Model of methodological and theoretical pluralism, developed after the behavioral revolution, allows different methods and purposes of approach in research of political spheres of social life. For many years, it seemed that the current consensus is not threatened, that the acceptance of the status quo is widespread. As it turned out, however, post-behavioral order and peace were hiding under the surface of old conflicts and contradictions, and generated new ones. Somewhat like 100 years ago, at the beginning of the new century, they flowed on the surface – colliding with each other – as completely different visions of policy research, based on a different meaning of objectivity and truth and the role that the gained knowledge plays in the society. In October 2000, to a dozen American political scientists and publishers of professional magazines there was sent an e-mail, signed “Mr. Perestroika”, containing harsh criticism of the system of forces existing in the American political science, under which there is a strong dominance of representatives of science-oriented mathematical modeling and quantitative methods, and representatives of other approaches are being discriminated against. This letter, commonly called the “Perestroika Manifesto”, has rapidly spread in the network, gaining a few hundred followers within a few weeks. It became the nucleus of an informal Perestroika Movement, which brought together a larger group of political scientists dissatisfied with the current model of discipline. They performed against the domination of investigator-driven assumptions of logical positivism and radical behaviorism, based on the assumption that it is possible to predict the political behavior on the basis of the theories of rationality. They also questioned focusing on discovering universal, independent of context, truths about politics, based on testing causal hypotheses with regard to the behavior of political actors and the quest to build a general theory. Th is results in their opinion that there is the marginalization of other studies aimed at clarifying and resolving specifi c issues and, on the other hand, the need of search for a more explicit link between theory and practice. Supporters of the Perestroika Movement do not reject entirely quantitative methods, only tend to criticize their absolutizing character, involving the complete discrediting of approaches which are not referring to the quantifi cation of data or treating this type of treatment only as a complementary knowledge considerations based on normative narrative. Th erefore, they generally tend to the concept of methodological triangulation, in which quantitative techniques may complement and partially be a form of verifi cation of qualitative methods in various research issues, of course, if you can combine both types of approaches. Th ey are clearly in favor of the primacy of the essence of research method. From this point of view, based on compliance with the applicable rules of methodological research, they do not have to be in this respect particularly innovative, hyper-precise or mathematicised. Th ey should, however, contain a well-constructed argumentation, allowing reliably resolve important issues. Th e result should be to restore compounds research and theoretical knowledge with the real problems of political life, moving away from the extreme containment and academic character towards the relationship of knowledge about politics of social practice.
Introduction. A sedentary lifestyle with lack of physical activity contributes to deteriorated balance among healthy young people. Physical activity is import_ant since it stimulates neuromuscular junctions that control body posture, especially at younger age, when greater postural sway may be observed in stabilography compared to adults. Proper work of individual muscle groups is import_ant to maintain proper balance. Abnormal muscle tone can lead to dysbalances that make it difficult o maintain a stable posture in a variety of conditions. Aim. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of a training cycle consisting of stretching of the ilopsoas, rectus femoris, gluteus maximus, hamstring and rectus abdominis, and eccentric training of the above mentioned muscles to improve static and dynamic balance. Methods. Oobjective and qualitative-subjective were used to assess the results in a man aged 22 yrs. Postural control was tested twice in the patient with the Neurocom International Inc. SMART EquiTest device under static conditions without visual control and with dynamic visual surrounding and unstable support surface. Automatic postural reflexes were also evaluated. In addition, clinical tests were performed. Results. Myo-fascial training, which included eccentric training combined with lower limb and trunk stretching improved the postural control in the subject.
W tekście przedstawione jest narzędzie badawcze opracowane z myślą o badaniu ubierania się jako działania społecznego. Celem artykułu jest szczegółowy opis techniki (zwanej w artykule „moja szafa”), która stanowi połączenie wywiadu i obserwacji dotyczących zawartości szafy i sposobów użytkowania znajdujących się tam ubrań. Technika ta, poprzez specyficzny dobór materiałów zastanych (ubrania w szafie) oraz etapowy scenariusz badania, umożliwia inny niż tylko dzięki zastosowaniu samego wywiadu dostęp do rzeczywistości społecznej, która toczy się bez udziału badacza. W wyniku jej zastosowania wiedza spekulatywna badanych dotycząca znaczenia ubrania zostaje skonfrontowana z wiedzą pragmatyczną wynikającą z doświadczenia użytkowania ubrań.
EN
In this article I present a research tool which was designed to study clothing as social action. The article describes a technique called “my wardrobe”, which consists of a “wardrobe elicited interview” and observation of existing materials (clothes in the wardrobe). A distinctive feature of this technique lies in the fact that a researcher can get access to social action (clothing) which can hardly be observed otherwise. What is important, the technique allows for the confrontation of speculative and pragmatic knowledge – this is knowledge which comes from lived experience of wearing clothes.
Celem artykułu jest scharakteryzowanie metody wywiadu indywidualnego online ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem jednej z jego technik – asynchronicznego wywiadu online. W pierwszej części artykułu autorka omawia specyfikę prowadzenia wywiadów indywidualnych online, która wynika przede wszystkim z tego, że ich realizacja przebiega przy wykorzystaniu komunikacji zapośredniczonej komputerowo. Następnie wskazuje na podział indywidualnych wywiadów online ze względu na czas ich prowadzenia na synchroniczne i asynchroniczne wywiady online. Druga część artykułu poświęcona jest sposobom prowadzenia wywiadów asynchronicznych online. Autorka prezentuje przegląd stosowanych sposobów realizacji tego typu projektów badawczych z uwzględnieniem strategii rekrutacji oraz strategii przebiegu samego wywiadu. Na zakończenie autorka, wskazując na główną cechę asynchronicznych wywiadów online – konieczność wielokrotnych wymian wiadomości pomiędzy badaczem a badanym, omawia pozytywne i negatywne konsekwencje wyboru tej techniki badawczej zarówno dla badanego, badacza, jak i samego przebiegu wywiadu, a także jakości danych uzyskanych przy jego wykorzystaniu.
EN
The purpose of this article is to characterize the method of individual online interview with particular emphasis on one of its techniques – asynchronous online interview. In the first part of the article, the author discusses the specificity of conducting personal online interviews, which results primarily from the fact that they are conducted with the use of computer-mediated communication. The author then points out the division of individual online interviews into synchronous and asynchronous online interviews due to the time of their conduct. The second part of the article deals with ways of conducting asynchronous online interviews. The author presents an overview of the methods used to implement such research projects, including the recruitment strategy and the strategy of the interview itself. Finally, the author points to the main feature of asynchronous online interviewing – the need for multiple exchanges of information between the researcher and the respondent – and she discusses the positive and negative consequences of choosing this research technique both for the respondent, the researcher as well as the interview itself and the quality of the data obtained with its use.
This article describes and analyses an ethno-Zenic experiment consisting of standing motionless in public places (for example, at the entrance to a shopping mall, in front of a petrol station, a bank or a shop, or on a street corner). The research was inspired by an ethnomethodological approach to lived order and psychological knowledge - derived from Buddhism - on how the mind works. Some inspiration was also drawn from symbolic interactionism. The experiment was aimed first at discovering the basic assumptions underlying our everyday activities. A second and more important goal was to deconstruct the work of the mind, especially with respect to the process of the looking-glass self and ‘producing’ emotions. The article also discusses the use of the self-study method (ethno-Zenic experiments) to deconstruct the mind as part of a lived order in a certain location and, in the wake of that, mindfulness.
Celem artykułu jest przybliżenie polskiemu czytelnikowi najważniejszych informacji dotyczących oprogramowania CAQDAS jako swoistej rodziny programów wspomagających analizę danych jakościowych. Aby zaś nakreślić ogólny obraz tej kategorii programów, przedstawiam rys historyczny i początki powstania oprogramowania wspomagającego analizę danych jakościowych, ich rozwój oraz ewolucję, jaką przeszły od swoich narodzin do obecnych czasów. Zadaniem artykułu jest także pobudzenie czytelników do refleksji i skłonienie do zastanowienia się nad kierunkami dalszego rozwoju oraz przyszłości tego typu narzędzi wspomagających pracę badaczy jakościowych.
EN
The main aim of the article is to introduce the Polish readers to the most important information about CAQDA software, as a kind of specific programs to help conduct the analysis of qualitative data. This paper presents the historical background and foundation of the creation of this software. The purpose of the article is to present the development and evolution of CAQDAS. The aim of the article is also to identify the capabilities and constraints of using CAQDA programs in qualitative data analysis.
Article presents the form and perspectives for scientific research provided in the area of measurement of the power of state. Author sees the power of state as a part of security culture concept. Several ways of analysing and scientific research methods are presented, with their advantages and disadvantages, stressing both qualitative and quantitative factors. The theoretical basis is also included, with presentation of many different approaches.
One of the developments based on the approach of Berger and Luckmann focuses on the analysis of discourses and subjectivation processes. The Interpretive Subjectivation Analysis (ISA) takes up these developments in order to establish a research perspective on the decentered subject that combines the theories of the Interpretive Paradigm of Sociology and the post-structuralist concepts of subjectivation as established in Judith Butler’s and Michel Foucault’s work. This paper outlines a qualitative methodological framework to analyze processes of subjectivation by including and relating empirical data on different levels. In order to show how this type of research can broaden the perspective on human subjectivities, the article discusses different empirical studies that focus on questions of inequality and marginalization.
The way we experience our cities is not neutral: women and men experience it differently, depending on factors such as where they live, the social group which they belong to, the gender roles assigned, and intersectionality. Urbanismo Mujeres y Ciudad en Latinoamérica is a platform that works with qualitative methodologies with gender and feminist perspective.This article presents a methodological proposal to answer the central question: How is the urban experience of women in two Latin American cities: Mexico City and Santiago de Chile. As a way of answering it, the following were developed: the Multidimensional Model of Gender-Conscious Urbanism, the My Walk Travel Log, the Immobility Log and the Neighbourhood Satisfaction Survey. These are the tools of the urban analysis methodology proposed in order to understand the experience of women in the above-mentioned territory, including quantitative and qualitative variables, making perception the central element of the analysis.
W artykule porównuje się różne aspekty metod ilościowych i jakościowych. Jednym ze stawianych pytań jest to, jak badacze wybierają paradygmat i związaną z nim metodologię. Czy jest to efekt różnic w określeniu istoty badanych zjawisk? Być może kluczowym czynnikiem jest odmienność stylów myślenia. Zalety i wady badań jakościowych i ilościowych są przedmiotem odwiecznych gorących dyskusji. Ta polemika raczej zaciemnia niż rozjaśnia i dzieli zamiast łączyć. Czy spór ten ma charakter wewnątrz- czy ponadaparadygmatyczny? Z jednej strony puryści ilościowi uważają, że realizują pozytywistyczne ideały, a z drugiej jakościowi puryści odrzucają pozytywistyczny paradygmat. Głównym jednak pytaniem pozostaje, co ma być celem badania naukowego. W ostatniej części artykułu rekomendowane jest podejście pragmatyczne oraz łączenie metod jakościowych i ilościowych.
EN
This article compares and contrasts some aspects of qualitative and quantitative research approaches. The question is: how does a researcher select a research paradigm and corresponding methodology? Is this choice a consequence of the nature or essence of the social phenomena being investigated? The researcher's thinking style is probably a key factor for the preferred choice of methods. The strengths and weaknesses of qualitative and quantitative research are a perennial and hot themes of debate, especially in psychology. Much of this debate has tended to obfuscate rather than clarify the problem, and to divide rather than unite researchers. Is this the inter-paradigm debate or is it a dispute between competing paradigms? Quantitative purists express assumptions that are consistent with positivist philosophy, whereas qualitative purists reject positivism. However, the major question remains: What is the goal of investigation? The final section of the paper advocates a "pragmatic approach" as a new guiding paradigm and as a basis for supporting work that combines qualitative and quantitative methods.
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