7.7: Summary

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Summary of Section 7.1: What are qualitative methods?

This section introduced qualitative methods as a suite of methods that generate non-numerical data. Qualitative methods can include interviews, documentary sources, ethnographic researcher, and case study-building. Qualitative methods are most powerful for the depth of understanding they can generate on a topic, especially the leverage they provide for grasping causal mechanisms. Drawbacks to these methods include their resource-intensive nature and questions about representativeness and reliability.

Summary of Section 7.2: Interviews

Interviews are a key source of data on political life. This section discussed interviewee selection and other considerations such as whether and how to record interviews. It also discussed the difference between structured, unstructured, and semi-structured interviews.

Summary of Section 7.3: Exploring documentary sources

There are a variety of documentary sources that researchers may locate to collect data on their research topic. Documentary sources are also amenable to different kinds of analysis, some quantitative, such as content analysis and factor analysis.

Summary of Section 7.4: Ethnographic research

Ethnographic research is immersive research in which researchers conduct observation-based research and collect data at one or more sites relevant to their research question. Digital ethnography is a newer kind of ethnography in which researchers explore the digital world to address research questions.

Summary of Section 7.5: Case studies

This section introduced case studies, which are analytical, in-depth analyses of an event, person, group, and/or place with the purpose of providing insights on a research topic or to test theory. This section explored aspects of case selection as well as practical considerations such as access to relevant data sources.