Understanding Research: Coping with the Quantitative - Qualitative Divide

321 Pages·2012·2.573 MB·English

by  M.I. Franklin

 UNDERSTANDING RESEARCH
Successfully completing a research project is a major milestone in most university
degrees, and the cornerstone of an academic career. This text is an accessible, real-time
guide to conducting academic research in international and cross-cultural settings.
It provides advanced undergraduates and graduate students practical and
theoretical guidance on how to begin, execute, and then communicate the outcome
of research projects undertaken at the intersection of the arts, humanities, and social
sciences.
Understanding Research:
• explores the decision-making process at all points of a research project and the
implications of these decisions in the longer term;
• outlines the practical and philosophical conundrums around specific techniques
for gathering and analysing material;
• examines moments of disconnect, overlap, and potentially mutual benefit for
researchers working at different points along the quantitative–qualitative divide
that underscores popular and scholarly debates about the relevance of academic
research;
• explains how to cope with a divide that is both real and imagined, in all its
experiential, institutional, and conceptual variations.
Focused explicitly on the needs and experiences of students and including a wealth
of practical tips, this work is an essential resource for all students embarking on a
research project.
M. I. Franklin is Reader and Convener of the Global Media and Transnational
Communications programme at Goldsmiths (UK). Previous books include Resounding
International Relations: On Music, Culture, and Politics and Postcolonial Politics, the
Internet, and Everyday Life: Pacific Traversals Online.

UNDERSTANDING RESEARCH
Coping with the
quantitative–qualitative divide
M. I. Franklin
First published 2013
by Routledge
2Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
©2013 M. I. Franklin
The right of M. I. Franklin to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by
her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in
any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Acatalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Franklin, Marianne, 1959-
Understanding research : coping with the quantitative - qualitative divide /
M. I. Franklin.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Political science—Research—Methodology—Textbooks. I. Title.
JA86.F69 2012
001.4--dc23
2011046383
ISBN 13: 978–0–415–49079–5 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978–0–415–49080–1 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 978–0–203–11886–3 (ebk)
Typeset in Garamond by
Keystroke, Station Road, Codsall, Wolverhampton
■
CONTENTS
List of illustrations ix
Acknowledgements xi
1 Introduction 1
Aims and objectives 3
Who should read this book 4
Using this book in context 5
What is academicresearch? 8
On divides – real and imagined 13
Key concepts and their various uses 15
Chapter organization 21
PART 1 DIVIDES AND DESIGNS 25
2 Putting research into perspective 27
Introduction 27
Key elements of a research project 28
Looking ahead: milestones, destinations, and expectations 30
Getting started and deciding a topic 35
Theory and method – of carts and horses 39
Concluding comments 51
3 Research in practice:designing a research project 54
Introduction 54
Main stages in a research project 56
Work-plans and proposals 60
From research topic to research questionor hypothesis 63
On science, worldviews, and other brainteasers 68
Other practical matters: limits, ethics, and codes of practice 75
Methodological coping strategies – plotting a course 87
Concluding comments 90
v
CONTENTS
4 The politics of research:living with and defending our choices 92
Introduction 92
Doing research today: ‘location, location, location’ 95
Literature searches and the literature review 98
Historical and philosophical note 100
Purpose and categories of literature reviews 101
Practicalities 105
Sources and resources that matter 113
Research communities and (multiple) disciplinary identities 116
Concluding comments: living with your choices 119
5 Online research and web-resourcing skills 123
Introduction 123
Setting the record straight 126
Back the future: a quick prequel 131
The web as resource 137
Digital tools for online data-gathering and analysis 145
Online research: fields, relationships, ethics 151
Web-analysis: sites, maps, and hypertexts 155
Summing up 160
PART 2 COPING AND COMMUNICATING 165
6 Doing research – gathering data 167
Preamble: introduction to Part 2 167
Chapter aims and organization 168
Data-gathering techniques – review 169
Surveys and questionnaires 171
Interviews 183
Focus groups 192
Ethnographic fieldwork and participant-observation 197
Summing up: repositioning the divide? 208
7 Doing research – analysing findings 211
Introduction 211
What is analysis? 213
Working with texts 215
Content analysis 217
Textual/visual analysis 224
Discourse analysis 229
Deductive and inductive paths to knowledge 232
Behaviouralism and its discontents: a worldview in action 237
Data-gathering as process andproduct 240
Concluding comments 245
vi
CONTENTS
8 Writing it all up and going public 249
Introduction 249
What is academicwriting? 252
Writing formalities: citation and style guides 254
Feedback: examinations and going public 257
Procrastinations and prevarications 265
Coping and moving on – creatively 267
Revising and editing – what to look for 269
The final cut – what to remember 271
9 Conclusion 274
Reappraising divides imagined and real 275
To the exit and afterlife of a research project 276
Appendix 1: informed consent form template 279
Appendix 2: guidelines for internet research/researching cyberspace 280
Appendix 3: sample (master-level) ethics form 283
Glossary 287
Literature list 295
Index 305
vii

■
ILLUSTRATIONS
■
TABLES
1.1 Academic research objectives 11
3.1 Supervisors and supervisees 86
A2.1 Guidelines for internet research/researching cyberspace 281
■
FIGURES
1.1 How we/cats see the world, Nina Paley 16
1.2 Post-doc presentation, Vadlo 19
1.3 Differences between the humanities and social sciences, Jorge Cham 20
3.1 Ways of seeing, Len Munnik 69
3.2 View from Greenwich, UK, M. I. Franklin 73
3.3 View of lighthouse, Castlepoint, New Zealand, M. I. Franklin 75
3.4 Urban renewal, M. I. Franklin 75
3.5 Valid and invalid claims schedule, Fran Orford 76
3.6 Human–machine ethics, Nina Paley 83
4.1 All the authors?!, Vadlo 113
5.1 Information superhighway, Chappatte 126
5.2 Screenshot (i) 135
5.3 Screenshot (ii) 135
5.4 Spam, Chappatte 152
5.5 Map of the internet, xkcd 158
5.6 Cyberpolice!, Chappatte 161
5.7 Welcome to the medium of the future, Nina Paley 162
6.1 Surveys – a waste of time, Fran Orford 175
6.2 Don’t have a category for that, Joseph Farris 176
6.3 I can prove or disprove it..., Vadlo 181
7.1 Surrealist painter meets surrealist plumber, Dan Piraro 231
7.2 Measuring climate change, Josh 235
8.1 Student workout, Jorge Cham 253
8.2 You need some boundaries, Nina Paley 255
8.3 How not to act like an artist, Nina Paley 259
ix