Course Readings:
- John Lofland and Lyn Lofland, Analyzing Social Settings: A Guide to Qualitative Observation and Analysis, 3rd or 4th edition [I recommend buying a copy off of Amazon, Powells, or other new and used book sources for convenience, but will also make the relevant chapters available on the website]
- Course Reader available at Zee Zee Copy, 2431-C Durant Ave. Berkeley, CA 94704
| DATE | TOPIC | READINGS (please read before class) | SLIDES |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thu 8/28/14 | What is Qualitative Research? | ||
| Tue 9/2/14 | Epistemology, Research Design | – Becker, Epistemology of Qualitative Research (handed out in class, and available here)
– Creswell, Chapter 1, Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (handed out in class, and available here) – my notes on Habermas (one page) Optional: – Law and Urry, ‘Enacting the Social,’ Economy and Society |
slides |
| Thu 9/4/14 | Components of the Research Process, Induction, Iteration | – Flick, ‘Process and Theories’ [here]
– O’Reilly, ‘Inductive and Deductive’ [here] |
slides |
| Tue 9/9/14 | Sampling and ‘Corpus Construction’ | – Lofland and Lofland, Chap. 1-3 [download]
– Bauer and Aarts, ‘Corpus Construction’ [CR] – Small, ‘How many cases do I need?’ [CR] |
slides |
| Thu 9/11/14 | Observation, Participation, and Ethnography | Participant-Observation and the Mechanics of Data Collection:
– Blomberg et al., ‘An Ethnographic Approach to Design’ (pgs. 965-973) [CR] – Lofland and Lofland, on logging data [download] – Boellstorff et al, ‘Other Data Collection Methods for Virtual Worlds Research’ [CR] – The UC Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects the Belmont Report | [slides] |
| Tue 9/16/14 | Observation, Participation, and Ethnography – II | 3 classics:
– Geertz, ‘Thick Description’ [CR] – Clifford, ‘On Ethnographic Authority’ [CR] – Rosaldo, ‘Subjectivity in Social Analysis’ [CR] |
questions for the readings
[slides] |
| Thu 9/18/14 | Discussion of Observation Exercise | ||
| Tue 9/23/14 | Locating Fieldwork: Multi-Sitedness, Virtual Worlds |
– Burrell, ‘The Fieldsite as a Network’ [CR]
– Hine, ‘Virtual Ethnography: Modes, Varieties, Affordances’ [CR] – WRITING EXAMPLE: Boellstorff, Selections from Coming of Age in Second Life [CR] Optional: |
[slides] |
| Thu 9/25/14 | Discussion of Observation Exercise | ||
| Tue 9/30/14 | Analysis: Coding and Generating Themes | – Charmaz, ‘Invitation to Grounded Theory’ and ‘Coding in Grounded Theory Practice’ [CR]
– Lofland and Lofland, chap. 9 [download] |
[slides] |
| Thu 10/2/14 | Analysis Workshop 1 | [come prepared with your note cards] | |
| Tue 10/7/14 | Analysis Workshop 2 | [come prepared with your note cards] | |
| Thu 10/9/14 | After Analysis: Writing Up Based on Participant-Observation Work |
– WRITING EXAMPLE: Spitulnik, Zambian Radio Culture [CR]
– WRITING EXAMPLE: Hutchins and Klausen, Distributed Cognition in an Airline Cockpit [CR] |
|
| Tue 10/14/14 | Design Ethnography | – Blomberg et al., ‘An Ethnographic Approach to Design’ (pgs. 973-984) [CR]
– Dourish, ‘Implications for Design’ [CR] – Suchman, Lucy Anthropology as ‘Brand’: Reflections on Corporate Anthropology [OPTIONAL] |
[slides] |
| Thu 10/16/14 | Interviewing 1 – Introduction [Assignment 1 due] |
– Weiss, introduction to Learning From Strangers [CR]
– Suchman and Jordan, ‘Interactional Troubles in Face-to-Face Survey Interviews’ [CR] (plus comments on the Suchman and Jordan article: by statisticians, survey researchers, a conversation analyst, plus a rejoinder by Suchman and Jordan) – Lofland and Lofland, on designing interview guides (Chapter 5, section III) [download] |
[slides] |
| Tue 10/21/14 | Workshop: Critique of Interview Techniques and Coding Exercise | [slides] | |
| Thu 10/23/14 | Projective Interviewing |
– Young and Barrett, ‘Adapting Visual Methods: action research with Kampala street children’ [CR]
– Anderson et al, ‘Numbers have Qualities Too: Experiences in Ethno-Mining’ [CR] – Gaver et al, ‘Design: Cultural Probes’ [CR] |
[slides] |
| Tue 10/28/14 | Focus Groups and Expert/Elite Interviews |
– Morgan and Krueger, ‘When to Use Focus Groups and Why’ [CR]
– Thomas 1995, ‘Interviewing Important People in Big Companies’ [CR] | [slides] |
| Thu 10/30/14 | Guest Speaker: Stuart Geiger, “Ethnographic approaches to mediated and distributed organizations” | – Trace Ethnography (2011) Geiger and Ribes | |
| Tue 11/4/14 | Discussion of Interviews | ||
| Thu 11/6/14 | The Role of Text, Document, and Image Analysis in Field-Based Research |
– Rose, Content Analysis [CR]
– WRITING EXAMPLE: Heath and Luff, ‘Documents and Professional Practice’ [CR] – OPTIONAL: Rose, Semiology [CR] – OPTIONAL: Garfinkel, ‘Good Organizational Reasons for ‘Bad’ Clinical Records [CR]
|
[slides] |
| Tue 11/11/14 | VETERAN’S DAY: NO CLASS | ||
| Thu 11/13/14 | Guest Speaker: Ben Gebre-Medhin (TBC) – on topic modeling | – Introduction–Topic Models: What they are and why they matter (2013) Poetics [download] | |
| Tue 11/18/14 | Evaluating Qualitative Research [Assignment 2 due] |
– Bauer and Gaskell, ‘Towards Public Accountability: beyond sampling, reliability, and validity’ [CR]
– Kvale, ‘The Social Construction of Validity’ [CR] |
[slides] |
| Thu 11/20/14 | Ethics | – Thorne, “You Still Takin’ Notes?” Fieldwork and problems of informed consent.” [CR]
– de Laine, “Ethical Dilemmas: the demands and expectations of various audiences,” in Fieldwork, Participation, and Practice: Ethics and Dilemmas in Qualitative Research. [CR] – Bruckman, “Studying the Amateur Artist: A Perspective on Disguising Data Collected in Human Subjects Research on the Internet,” in Ethics and Information Technology. [CR] Facebook emotional manipulation study controversy: |
[slides] |
| Tue 11/25/14 | Project Discussion and Thoughts on Writing Up | – Lofland and Lofland, on writing up [download]
– Kvale, ‘improving research reports’ [CR] – Boellstorff et al (2012) ‘Writing Up, Presenting, and Publishing, Ethnographic Fieldwork’ in Ethnography and Virtual Worlds: A Handbook of Method [CR] |
[slides] |
| Thu 11/27/14 | Thanksgiving – NO CLASS | ||
| Tue 12/2/14 | The Role of Recording Technologies in Data Collection | – Nafus and Anderson, ‘The Real Problem: Rhetorics of Knowing in Corporate Ethnographic Research’
[CR] |
|
| Thu 12/4/14 | Discussion and Exercise | – (reread) Becker, Epistemology of Qualitative Research. Available here. | |
| Tue 12/9/14, Thu 12/11/14 | RRR week |