| In the process of investigating
and presenting the above (and potentially other) dilemmas,
this demonstrator project will directly engage with contemporary
and broader debates within qualitative research, and consider
the role that new technologies may play in any future development.
The applicability and accessibility of technological innovation
for qualitative data archiving, sharing and (re)presentation
help to formulate a number of substantive research questions
that the demonstrator project will seek to address in the
process of researching and constructing the Online Guide and
Methodological Trail.
• The digitization of qualitative datasets and their
archiving in interactive and accessible formats: How can qualitative
data be digitally transformed and made accessible for users
in meaningful and interactive ways? While there is an increasing
use of computer software for qualitative data management and
analysis, most qualitative data are not routinely collected
or stored in digital form. ESDS Qualidata have already established
that, for qualitative data archiving, sharing and reuse to
be fully realised systematic mechanisms and protocols for
digitally archiving complex qualitative data need to be established
and made accessible to the wider social science community.
These need to be faithful to the data and the research context(s),
while facilitating reinterpretation and secondary analysis.
The capacity to envision qualitative data as reusable digital
information is vital to any form of computer-mediated resource
sharing. Consequently principled methods for the indexing,
storing and retrieving of varieties of qualitative data need
to be established. The project will be in a good position
to test out the techniques being developed by ESDS Qualidata
for the neutral mark up of textual data in XML, and extend
this in order to explore and document the capacities for digitising
and representing multimedia qualitative data.
• Designing qualitative research for data re-use: What
are the methodological dilemmas posed to qualitative researchers
by the prospects of data re-use, and how can potential problems
be resolved? Qualitative projects need to consider questions
relating to the potential re-use of data during the design
and fieldwork stages, as well as (or even rather than) retrospectively.
The project will address a number of issues that need to be
considered if future re-users are to make use of qualitative
datasets in ways that will enable them to understand and follow
the original research questions, approach and design, as well
as generate their own interpretations. These issues will be
explored and guidelines produced through the examination and
presentation of ‘records’ from completed research
projects.
• Working with multimedia and hypermedia data: How
can technological strategies facilitate the storage, retrieval
and sharing of multimedia and hypermedia qualitative data
sets? Although computer aided qualitative data analysis software
programmes have become increasingly proficient at managing
and analysing textual data, audio-visual data still presents
a substantial challenge. Moreover current protocols for the
mark up of hypermedia have not been systematically applied
to social science data more generally. Hypermedia and multimedia
data sets can include hypertext links; documents and texts;
digital video and still images; digital audio; analytic commentary;
graphics; journals and diaries; coding structures and other
analytical frameworks. The capacity for developing and sharing
technological resources and guidelines may enable the manipulation
of such complex data sets. This potential will be investigated
through our development and demonstration work with existing
datasets.
• Visualising and integrating qualitative data: What
are the implications and possibilities of technological innovation
for the (re)visualization and integration of complex qualitative
data sets? Issues in the visualisation and sharing of qualitative
data have not been systematically explored within the social
sciences. While qualitative data sets are often not large
in conventional terms, they can contain a variety of different
data forms, making them potentially difficult to visualise
in their entirety. Strategies for scanning, zooming and representing
textual and audio visual digital data will be considered as
part of the programme of work of the demonstration project.
This will include an exploration of the differing modes of
visualisation (for example positional, temporal, spatial and
thematic) as means of sharing and navigating qualitative data
sets. It is anticipated that any effective mode of visualisation
and innovative transformation of audio-visual data would require
large amounts of storage and processing power, to which new
technologies (including Grid technologies) would be well suited.
Moreover the study of sound (including voice, noise, soundscapes
and rhythms) as qualitative data also requires an exploration
of the potential for sympathetically integrating audio, visual
and textual modes of representation (Bauer 2000).
• Ethical considerations: How are the ethical issues
faced by qualitative researchers challenged or changed by
the development of protocols and tools for data archiving,
presentation and reuse? Issues such as informed consent, protecting
the identities of settings and informants, sensitive representation
and data cleaning are recurrent considerations for qualitative
researchers. The emergence of new technologies, and the possibilities
these offer for wider access and sharing of data generates
significant ethical questions for qualitative researchers.
The project will contribute to the critical analyses of current
guidelines that provide ethical frameworks for social science
researchers in the UK, and to the development of good ethical
practice for widening data access.
• The (re)presentation of qualitative research: How
can new technologies facilitate innovative approaches to representing
and publishing qualitative research? The project will be well
placed to explore the potential for the innovative (re)presentation
and publishing of scholarly analyses and theorization as part
of the development of accessible and navigable qualitative
data archiving. This could also include the consideration
of innovative approaches to data archiving and re-presentation
for meaningful and active engagements with policy makers,
practitioners, professionals, research participants and other
non-academic users of qualitative data.
Destinations
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