Year: 2024
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: Data analysis General approachIn participatory research, participants should be constantly involved in the analyses.A joint interpretation may already have taken place during the interview stage, during which pictures or maps will have been analysed by the participants themselves (see 3).In other cases, a separate joint analysis of empirical data is undertaken after data collection (see 4.3).In general, a variety of established modes of analysis can be applied.'Qualitative data analysis' can be used to evaluate qualitative data, including verbal/textual, visual or other non-numerical data.It is important that the collected data are not simply analysed at the discretion and interest of the individual researcher, but that the analysis is carried out interpretatively (hermeneutically) in relation to the previously defined research interest and questions.The aims of evaluation are to explore the research topic in more detail and to build hypotheses or theories.In qualitative social research, the interest in knowledge is thus primarily inductive and based on concrete empirical data.Categorising methods of analysis are very common in the evaluation of qualitative data.In this process, the collected materialinterview transcripts, observation protocols or mobility maps, for example -is divided into meaningful units, including for instance individual paragraphs, sentences or even short phrases or words.These previously defined units of analysis are then assigned codes.This process is called 'coding'.In a further step, categories are built, summarizing codes with similar, (inter)relating and contrasting meanings.Hence, categories are an aggregation of codes.After "clustering" codes into categories, which provide the basis for building superordinate themes and carrying out comparisons between the categories, patterns in the data compared can be identified and meaningful, logical connections between the categories drawn (Dey 2005; Lester et al. 2020).
Authors: Stefan Kordel, Marika Gruber
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4401258359