Field Methods

This article describes three techniques for combining a Q method analysis with a traditional survey. Q method is an effective way of identifying the various shared perspectives that people may hold about a given topic. The ability to measure those viewpoints in a later survey would allow the researcher to generalize the findings to a larger population and to construct explanations in which respondents' adherence to those perspectives is related to other variables. “Scale creation” involves presenting distinctive Q statements as Likert items that can be used to construct a traditional psychometric scale to measure each perspective. “Profile correlation” involves correlating respondents' overall pattern of responses with prototypes representing the perspectives. Finally, “narrative evaluation” asks the respondent to give his or her opinion about a narrative description of each perspective.

Ambiguous phrases are the bane of researchers' attempts to ensure acceptably high interrater agreement in the encoding of texts. When modal usages and their associated rationales are encoded as part of a text analysis, ambiguities arise in characteristic (and thus identifiable) ways. This article illustrates the typical sources of disagreement among coders involved in encoding data during a modality analysis and provides concrete strategies for improving interrater agreement.

This article assesses the strengths and shortcomings of multi-value qualitative comparative analysis (mvQCA), a comparative technique for small- to medium-sized data sets that has been integrated in the TOSMANA software developed by Lasse Cronqvist. The main difference with “crisp-set” QCA is that in mvQCA, the conditions can have more values than just the Boolean values 0 and 1, whereas the main difference with “fuzzy-set” QCA is that mvQCA conditions remain discrete. The major advantage of nondichotomous categorization, according to its proponents, is that it reduces the likelihood of contradictory configurations because of a more homogeneous grouping of cases. We give an overview of existing mvQCA applications, with a detailed discussion of two recent publications, and argue that crisp-set and fuzzy-set alternatives should be less easily discarded, as the mvQCA solution comes with substantial set-theoretical costs.

Participatory methods and visual tools are increasingly popular as qualitative approaches for enriching and complementing quantitative survey tools for understanding livelihoods and assessing and documenting impacts of development projects. However, the use of visual tools for analyzing and documenting social processes is still in its infancy. This article reports on an innovative attempt in adopting existing methods of using disposable cameras to stimulate interviews and focus group discussions with groups of smallholder farmers and to obtain new insights into farmer group dynamics and social capital of groups.

This article discusses the benefits and challenges of involving peer researchers in social research projects. A research project on pupil participation in policy making on school bullying in Northern Ireland's schools was commissioned by the Office of the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People and undertaken by the National Children's Bureau in conjunction with researchers from Queen's University Belfast in fourteen schools across Northern Ireland, utilizing a mixed methods approach. We trained and employed nine 15—18-year-old peer researchers to support them in this project. After the project's completion, we conducted interviews with six of the peer researchers to investigate how they experienced their involvement in the research. We discuss the findings from these interviews and contextualize in a review of literature on research involving children and young people.