RICERCA ITALIANA     

Qualitative research: theories, methods and applications

Università degli Studi Roma Tre

Abstract

This research project aims at narrowing the currently existing gap, especially felt in Italy, between quantitative and qualitative studies, the latter being generally marginalised. To establish a firm footing for qualitative research, this project will therefore bring together the principal Italian experts - scholars who have contributed to qualitative research through theoretical-methodological studies or applied studies - for a confrontation covering a wide spectrum of theoretical, methodological and empirical approaches. However diverse the individual techniques used by these scholars may be, their interplay will undoubtedly contribute to illuminating the nature and grounding of qualitative research.
The project provides for a three-tiered approach: theory, method and applications. Eight months will be dedicated to each tier. Each research Unit will follow a common framework, decided nationally, while being free to implement it locally as seen fit. Each study will be polydisciplinary, thanks to the background of the researchers and to the methods and topics which will be adopted and studied. Thus, sociologists and psychologists, linguists, medical researchers and computer scientists will all come together in a carefully designed subdivision of tasks aiming at fitting their empirical studies into a mosaic illustrating the significance of empirical research. These tasks will be based on trends in the field which have been widely discussed both nationally and >>>

Principal Investigator

Roberto CIPRIANI Università degli Studi ROMA TRE

Research Objectives

This research project aims at satisfying a deeply felt need in the Italian scientific community: that of establishing recognized reference points for qualitative research, with respect to both its theoretical justification and the acceptable methodologies and applications coherent with that justification.
There has been, in fact, a noticeable increase in qualitative studies over the past few years, whether theoretical or applied; but this has not advanced qualitative research as such. The theoretical studies have tended to develop ex abrupto, each and every one, while the applied studies have given the impression of unique events, rather than a continuation and development of preceding work.
Thus the possibility of establishing a fruitful scientific dialogue with colleagues has been hindered by the very absence of recognized guidelines and by an established (even institutional) arena in which to share, compare and discuss the qualitative studies undertaken.
This situation is by no means typically Italian. It is international. After the uncontrasted dominion of quantitative research, in the United States and elsewhere, during the long parenthesis stretching from the 1920's to the 1950's, there has been a rebirth of the kind of qualitative input pioneered by Thomas and Znaniecki in the period 1918-20. But the rebirth has been slow, uncertain, and steadily contrasted.
Only recently has the stature of authors like Anselm Strauss and Norman Denzin, to >>>

First Results

1.st phase
The partial expected findings will above all be related to drawing up a shared theoretical approach, as far as possible, and producing a shared conceptual glossary. These tools must be considered of fundamental importance in guaranteeing uniformity of approach right from the start of the study, so that some general principles at least will be respected by all the Research Units. Subsequent diversification of methodologies, techniques and analytical topics will also have to respect certain general criteria that have been established as binding for all the researchers.2.nd phase
The partial findings will relate to the approval of the procedures to be implemented during the empirical field research planned for the next phase. The disciplinary differentiation of the researchers will in some way be made to converge on certain logical points and research styles. The shared empirical experience will be inspired by certain premises set out a priori in this phase. In a more explicit manner, this will put into practice the feature that is central to this research proposal - a polydisciplinary approach.3.rd phase
Partial expected findings will regard the empirical testing of the analysis tools laid out at the end of the second research phase. In this phase various forms of empirical research will be tested, depending on the plans and competences of each single research Unit. These will range from life histories, content analysis and visual sociology to >>>

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

The personal development of many social scientists has heavily conditioned the evolution of methods and techniques and, above all, their spread. A case in point is the success enjoyed by Thomas and Znaniecki's The Polish Peasant (1918-1922): it shows the difficulty that an innovative solution, in particular one based on qualitative analysis, has in making itself heard.
While in other disciplines, one encounters a certain amount of cross-fertilization between qualitative and quantitative studies - for example, the defining categories used by one approach may be taken over by the other - in sociology, psychology and statistics qualitative research seems to be frequentely ignored. What counts are numbers, percentages, tables - not qualities which, as Herbert A. Simon reminds us, call into question the very sense of what numbers purport to describe.
Sociology as an incomplete science
Historically speaking, sociology is clearly an incomplete science: it is a latecomer into the arena of social sciences, where for example history has reigned supreme for millennia. To this extent sociology seems to have learned little from the more advanced contemporary sciences. This, of course, is due to the lack of interdisciplinary exchange, especially regarding the epistemology of sciences, a terrain where one would think contact would be entirely possible. If, for example, we take as the object of our research the determination of the independent variable that produces a >>>