Networked Participants, Networked Meanings: Using Networks to Visualize Ethnographic Data
Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: Researchers can use data visualization techniques to explore, analyze, and present data in new ways. Although quantitative data are visualized most often, recent innovations have brought attention to the potential benefits of visualizing qualitative data. In this article, the authors demonstrate one way researchers can use networks to analyze and present ethnographic interview data. The authors suggest that because many respondents know one another in ethnographic research, networks are a useful tool for analyzing the implications of respondents’ familiarity with one another. Moreover, respondents often share familiar cultural references that can be visualized. The authors show how visualizing respondents’ ties in conjunction with their shared cultural references sheds light on the different systems of meaning that respondents within a field site use to make sense of the social phenomena under investigation.
Source: Sociological Methodology
Authors: Kenneth R. Hanson, Nicholas Theis
Institutions: University of Wyoming, University of Oregon
Language: English
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,250
Funder: University of Oregon
OpenAlex ID: W4386497709