INFO 272 Qualitative Research Methods Corpus Construction as

INFO 272. Qualitative Research Methods 'Corpus Construction' as an alternative logic of sampling

‘Corpus Construction’

‘Corpus Construction’ � Defining the sites and subjects of in situ work �Making decisions about your field site(s) – how a social phenomenon of interest is mapped out onto spatial terrain �Selecting people to follow, observe and/or interview �Selecting media / artifacts from the setting for further analysis

Competence and Innovation � Competence (Bauer and Gaskell) �Systematic �Issues of public accountability � Innovation (Becker) �Challenge conventional thinking

Doing Innovative Research � Starting Where You Are (Lofland) �Commitment and Curiosity �Access and ‘getting in’ � Willingness to go where others won’t �The inconvenient and uncomfortable �The illegitimate

Approaches � Total enumeration (i. e. census) � Statistical random sample � Snowball sample (iteration again) � Convenience sample (bad)

Random vs. Systematic � Random Statistical Sampling �Distribution of already known attributes �Sample has a distribution of criterion = population as a whole �Popular misconception – the greater the # in the sample, the more accurate ‘Corpus Construction’ Typifies unknown attributes Systematic selection to some alternative rationale (not a convenience sample)

Unknowable Populations Many populations of ‘individuals’ are knowable, however… � What about ‘actions? ’ � What about ‘situations? ’ � Open systems (i. e. language) = infinite populations

Mapping the Unknowable Social strata, functions and categories (known) Representations (unknown) Varieties of: Belief Attitudes Opinions Stereotypes Ideologies Worldviews Habits Practices [Bauer and Gaskell]

Mapping the Unknowable � Iteration until Saturation � Don’t collect too much data [logistical limits]

Problems of Social Strata in Cross. Cultural Research

Demographic Form

Extending Selection Strategies: Sampling for ‘Innovation’ Identify the case that is likely to upset your thinking and look for it – (the counter-example) e. g. morphine, opium, heroin addicts � If someone says it has already been studied, its probably time to study it again. � Studying the non-serious and the ‘boring’ �

Loose Ends: Selecting Field Sites � Some work is clearly ‘sited’ � Some is not (amorphous social settings) – and therefore locating such work will be more involved � Sites may be ‘open’ or ‘closed’

Loose Ends: Collecting text, images, data � Text produced in the process of research vs. texts produced for other purposes � Bauer and Gaskell’s simplified treatment of newspapers, etc. – newspapers as… � vs. Becker’s concern with the ‘sociology of record keeping’ � in media studies, the ‘active audience’

In Conclusion Representativeness? � The problem of unknowable populations � Rather than ‘representativeness’ we are seeking ‘range’ and variation in the social phenomenon under study � To what effect? Challenging notions of what is ‘natural’ or ‘universal’ about a phenomenon

To Review � Population and the problem of unknowable populations � Selection for range/diversity of the social phenomenon rather than representativeness � Selection for innovation � Stopping criterion

For Thursday � Read Lofland section on logging data � Read UC guidelines for protection of human subjects