For further details about what ‘Grounded Theory’ is exactly read http://www.ualberta.ca/~iiqm/backissues/1_2Final/pdf/glaser.pdf.
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Questions about bias are raised every year in INFO 272. I wrote these notes a few years back which I think offer a useful summary of how we can think about and manage these issues in qualitative, field-based research.
If you haven’t already, please send me your full field notes (not the 1-page analysis, just the notes)…anything you aren’t comfortable sharing you can edit out. I’ll put them up on the course website for reference. They will go into a password protected ‘workshop’ section of the website.
For yet another example of subjectivity in social analysis, see I-School PhD grad Daniela Rosner’s CSCW paper titled, The Material Practices of Collaboration. In this article she explores the nature of craftmaking and tacit and embodied knowledge through an apprenticeship at a bookbindery.
If you were on the wait list, as of today (9/9) you are now formally and officially enrolled in the class.
…back to normal. Tuesdays 3-5pm.
…are switched to Thursday. If you’d like to speak with me, come by my office between 3pm and 5pm. I’ll resume office hours on Tuesdays (3-5pm), starting next week.
Bring your copy of the Becker reading, ‘the Epistemology of Qualitative Research’ to class. If you didn’t get a copy in class it is available here.
Please also read Creswell, ‘Research Design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches‘ (also handed out in class)
and my 1-page notes on Habermas, Knowledge and Human Interests.
Why the Facebook Experiment is Lousy Social Science – by PhD student Galen Panger, anticipating our conversation on ethics later in the semester.
Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:30pm – 2pm
South Hall, Room 205
Professor Jenna Burrell (e-mail: jenna@ischool.berkeley.edu)
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 3pm-5pm, Room 312
This course will focus on the use of qualitative methods for research on the development, diffusion, and use of information technologies as well as information and management practices. Its core concern is with an epistemological question – how do we arrive at credible knowledge through qualitative research practices? The methods covered will include interviewing, focus groups, participant observation, and ethnography. Along the way we will confront the issues of quality, validity, and rigor.
This course has several goals: 1) to help students develop a better understanding of how data relates to knowledge 2) to negotiate the logistical limits and respect the ethical issues inherent in any research practice 3) to generate an awareness of the inevitable imperfections and alterations that are introduced by the structures imposed in any research design. 4) to give students hands-on experience with these methods.