1 00:00:00,300 --> 00:00:09,330 Good evening, everybody. And for those who don't know me, I'm Jenny Hislop on the module co-ordinator on the Conflict Research Methods Course, 2 00:00:09,600 --> 00:00:15,810 which is part of the Embassy in space health care at Oxford. 3 00:00:16,110 --> 00:00:22,350 And I'm absolutely delighted to welcome our guest speaker tonight, Axel Scherer. 4 00:00:22,500 --> 00:00:30,030 I hope I've got that sort of right, who is professor of sociology at Norwegian University of Science and Technology. 5 00:00:30,300 --> 00:00:38,790 And we're very lucky in the Health Experiences Research Group here or her because Axel's doing some work with us over 12 months, is it? 6 00:00:38,790 --> 00:00:42,240 I'm so glad you're doing work with us and so it's great to have him on board. 7 00:00:42,900 --> 00:00:48,900 I'm really fascinated in his topic tonight, the point of qualitative research, because if there isn't any point, 8 00:00:48,900 --> 00:00:56,969 then we're all taking nothing on and I'm out of a job, so I'm going to hand over to Axel and and hear all about it. 9 00:00:56,970 --> 00:01:05,670 Okay. Thank you very much. If it's all about it, I'm not sure, but at least hopefully some valuable input. 10 00:01:06,300 --> 00:01:13,290 And I will kind of stick more or less to a manuscript for this for this evening. 11 00:01:13,290 --> 00:01:22,080 And you are welcome to have the manuscript afterwards if if it's anything of value in its will you some slides as well. 12 00:01:22,470 --> 00:01:27,030 The slides are not filled with stuff. They are more like something to look at. 13 00:01:28,230 --> 00:01:38,610 So the topic, the point of qualitative research and qualitative research has received great acceptance in the great prior disciplines, 14 00:01:38,610 --> 00:01:40,110 including health and medicine. 15 00:01:40,770 --> 00:01:49,470 Still, I think there is reason to admit that the true potential to the research or qualitative analysis seems not to have been realised, 16 00:01:49,620 --> 00:01:58,560 realised in such areas and not in other areas as well, like within my own discipline of sociology and in the social sciences more broadly. 17 00:01:59,460 --> 00:02:02,880 So in this lecture before the dinner, after a long day, 18 00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:09,870 I will not bother you with this philosophical exploration or where the potential qualitative analysis lies, 19 00:02:10,230 --> 00:02:14,790 where it supposedly get lost or got lost, and whose fault that is. 20 00:02:15,420 --> 00:02:22,110 Rather, I will apply to examples from research performed by my colleagues and myself to throw 21 00:02:22,110 --> 00:02:26,760 some light on what kind of questions are best answered by the qualitative studies, 22 00:02:27,510 --> 00:02:36,329 and not at least how results or findings from qualitative studies may look like the title or the talk. 23 00:02:36,330 --> 00:02:41,880 The point or qualitative research has a double meaning addressing the point of doing 24 00:02:42,030 --> 00:02:47,790 qualitative research as well as the point of departure for qualitative research. 25 00:02:50,310 --> 00:02:58,680 First, let me admit that I think those of us who specialise in quality research, who develop methods, who teach and supervise, 26 00:02:59,100 --> 00:03:09,660 who research qualitatively in various ways, are those responsible for strengthening the quality, relevance and impact of a qualitative analysis. 27 00:03:11,070 --> 00:03:19,710 The regularly repeated critique of quality research for generating and presenting anecdotal evidence is often quite fair. 28 00:03:20,190 --> 00:03:25,170 My point of departure for responding to this critique is to work out transparent, 29 00:03:25,440 --> 00:03:32,340 systematic and ambitious routes to follow for the qualitative researcher, which is also comprehensible. 30 00:03:32,430 --> 00:03:36,960 I hope for the know why reader and user of qualitative research. 31 00:03:39,210 --> 00:03:43,050 For this ambition, I have developed what I call a stepwise, deductive, 32 00:03:43,410 --> 00:03:48,240 inductive method for qualitative research to which I will return at the end of the talk. 33 00:03:49,080 --> 00:03:55,049 Because now to the two examples. The first one deals with the familiar, 34 00:03:55,050 --> 00:04:00,750 everyday situation of using text messaging on mobile phones and the other deals 35 00:04:00,750 --> 00:04:06,180 with health issues that may to may be more familiar to many of you professionally. 36 00:04:06,180 --> 00:04:15,870 At least the first study was initiated by my curiosity of how text messaging changes, 37 00:04:15,870 --> 00:04:20,640 how we communicate, and especially how communication and physical space interact. 38 00:04:21,360 --> 00:04:31,350 I got the idea for the project on basis of an incident happening in a pub in my home city of Toronto in 2006, 39 00:04:31,920 --> 00:04:36,510 a period of which I was single and enjoying nightlife quite regularly. 40 00:04:37,290 --> 00:04:45,960 I got a text message and SMS from someone, a female whom I just a moment earlier had observed in the same pub. 41 00:04:46,830 --> 00:04:52,770 And it occurred to me that the rather intimate invitation could not have been uttered face to face, 42 00:04:53,520 --> 00:04:59,790 and that this very elegant use of SMS both reduced embarrassment and avoided interruption. 43 00:05:00,340 --> 00:05:02,740 Of the ongoing chats in the pub. 44 00:05:04,060 --> 00:05:12,010 As a sociologist interested in social interaction, I was immediately intrigued by the potential study of this phenomenon, 45 00:05:12,880 --> 00:05:18,340 and let me admit I was intrigued by the SMS invitation itself in the first place. 46 00:05:19,510 --> 00:05:23,500 Using SMS between people in the same spot was something new for me. 47 00:05:24,010 --> 00:05:29,650 I called it a space as SMS shared physical space SMS, 48 00:05:30,850 --> 00:05:39,100 especially a few days later when I checked the prevalence of such experiences with a large group of sociology introductory course students, 49 00:05:39,670 --> 00:05:44,650 finding that two thirds of the students had experienced this use of SMS. 50 00:05:45,460 --> 00:05:54,310 Remember, this was in 2006 with a huge popularity of SMS before wi fi and social media on 3G and 4G took off. 51 00:05:55,990 --> 00:06:04,740 Early next year, I invited students who then had completed my course to participate in the study on the basis that they had experienced as PSA. 52 00:06:04,870 --> 00:06:10,810 SMS 18 students between 19 and 26 years volunteered as participants. 53 00:06:12,730 --> 00:06:16,830 Ideally, observe, observing this phenomenon would be fantastic. 54 00:06:16,840 --> 00:06:23,380 But since part of the nature of the phenomenon in itself is its discreet ness, that was impossible. 55 00:06:24,220 --> 00:06:31,000 The option was to use depth interviews, use and concentrate on the total experiences and accounts of SPS SMS. 56 00:06:32,260 --> 00:06:36,480 The interviews were kept very short and focusing on the topic for the study, 57 00:06:36,490 --> 00:06:43,810 lasting only between seven and 23 minutes, and I was able to undertake all the 18 interviews during two days. 58 00:06:45,400 --> 00:06:48,960 The research question I addressed was quite simply, one. 59 00:06:49,450 --> 00:06:56,529 How is SMS used for communication with other people in the same physical space and to which 60 00:06:56,530 --> 00:07:03,220 concepts may we as social researchers apply to make sense of this novel form of communication? 61 00:07:04,540 --> 00:07:11,230 Although many of the participants were not prepared for the level of detail needed to achieve empirical depth, 62 00:07:12,010 --> 00:07:22,690 they were each able to move from general viewpoints and typical episodes to personal experiences of actual situations during the short interviews. 63 00:07:23,380 --> 00:07:28,450 It is well rehearsed within qualitative research textbooks that intimidate the 64 00:07:28,470 --> 00:07:33,100 results from the situated interaction between the participants and the researcher. 65 00:07:33,610 --> 00:07:40,990 In my case, on the basis of myself persistently encouraging detailed accounts from concrete episodes, 66 00:07:43,150 --> 00:07:50,680 detailed transcripts are necessary for next stage of coding into data by what I term empirically close codes, 67 00:07:51,100 --> 00:07:57,490 maintaining the content of the data as well as reducing volume in the next stage. 68 00:07:57,820 --> 00:08:07,930 At CATEGORISE, these codes identified ten different uses of space as SMS, and these are flirting and dating as SMS hugging, 69 00:08:08,560 --> 00:08:18,070 warning and assisting friends, coordinating discreetly, asking about other people present, commenting on and commenting on situation as it unfolds. 70 00:08:18,700 --> 00:08:26,679 Maintaining strategic collaboration. Avoiding interaction, interrupting social settings, making practical jokes, 71 00:08:26,680 --> 00:08:35,020 and the last one communicating during meetings while the coach unnamed as specific episodes and experiences. 72 00:08:35,260 --> 00:08:42,940 These categories, as you see here, are more generic and all the categories are inductively produced in the analysis. 73 00:08:42,940 --> 00:08:52,230 So we have no idea how many we will end up having. If we move to one of the categories. 74 00:08:53,250 --> 00:09:00,180 The one flirting and dating. I will illustrate the code. 75 00:09:00,690 --> 00:09:04,650 One of the codes behind. Behind such a category. 76 00:09:05,340 --> 00:09:09,690 And it's an episode described by Emma. 77 00:09:10,980 --> 00:09:20,450 Emma? She says one of the boys at the night cap party sent SMS to us four girls at the same party saying, Come over to my place afterwards. 78 00:09:20,460 --> 00:09:25,410 I'll say, I'm leaving, but you can come over. And then he says, Good bye. 79 00:09:25,410 --> 00:09:28,890 Bye. See you tomorrow. To the whole bunch of people in public. 80 00:09:32,050 --> 00:09:39,100 The episode is coded as come over to my place afterwards and together with other codes 81 00:09:39,100 --> 00:09:44,020 of similar situations grouped within the more generic term flirting and dating. 82 00:09:45,160 --> 00:09:53,830 Another category is, for example, that of friendly warnings and assistance in which SPSS SMS is used discreetly. 83 00:09:53,830 --> 00:10:01,030 Ask for assistance, for instance, in the situation described by Eve where a flirt is getting too intense. 84 00:10:02,140 --> 00:10:09,070 And she says, Me and my friend. But to get at the nightcap party and it was only a lot of friends, 85 00:10:09,070 --> 00:10:16,720 but one of the boys got a bit interested in my friend during the night, and then she sent me an SMS saying, Help me help, you know. 86 00:10:16,960 --> 00:10:23,560 And I was talking to some other people, but then I suddenly looked over to her and saw that this guy was leaning over her. 87 00:10:23,980 --> 00:10:27,460 And then it was easy to step in without she having to approach me. 88 00:10:28,060 --> 00:10:31,180 So then we used decimals to say something that we could not say out loud. 89 00:10:32,980 --> 00:10:41,890 While such categories like ten mentioned may be interesting and providing a nuanced insight into the scene of the study, 90 00:10:42,430 --> 00:10:48,040 they are not satisfactory as a result, according to the SDI method that I work alone. 91 00:10:48,670 --> 00:10:56,740 Moving to the next step. A more imaginative take is needed by which one or more concept should be suggested. 92 00:10:58,090 --> 00:11:05,320 Then, if you look at the two examples, Emma's description of this guy getting rid of some potential rivals at this party, 93 00:11:05,500 --> 00:11:09,010 and Eve explaining how her friend called discreetly for help. 94 00:11:09,700 --> 00:11:14,290 What do they have in common? What is happening in a more conceptual sense? 95 00:11:15,910 --> 00:11:21,970 Perhaps most importantly, that a new channel of communication is initiated on the spot. 96 00:11:22,990 --> 00:11:27,700 Another distinct and additional communicative option is created. 97 00:11:28,090 --> 00:11:33,490 And my initial view of these options option was the image of layers. 98 00:11:35,020 --> 00:11:44,820 So several layers of communication or what I have termed common communicative transparency layers are created of the discovery of this concept. 99 00:11:44,830 --> 00:11:50,500 I turn back to other categories to ask, Is this concept relevant for all the categories? 100 00:11:51,490 --> 00:11:56,690 And yes, it's true for all of them, although in different ways and to varying degree. 101 00:11:57,820 --> 00:12:09,399 Most importantly, the concept of communicative transparency layers draws the analysis towards a theoretical level in sociological sense. 102 00:12:09,400 --> 00:12:17,650 These, perhaps the rather mundane uses of Esims provide the communicative and interactive shifts and gendered in the accounts 103 00:12:17,650 --> 00:12:26,680 of these young people first that the mobile phone affords SPSS to facilitate a read definition of social interaction, 104 00:12:27,190 --> 00:12:34,450 and second how using ESP SMS may blur the distinction between private and public public interaction. 105 00:12:36,250 --> 00:12:37,750 In discussing the concept, 106 00:12:37,960 --> 00:12:46,630 the celebrated American sociologist Erving Goffman and his dramaturgical method force backstage and front stage become relevant. 107 00:12:48,190 --> 00:12:55,980 Goffman There is research mainly in the 1950s and sixties, long before the vast development of mediated communication. 108 00:12:56,440 --> 00:13:02,500 But his ideas and concepts have nevertheless maintained their position within interaction in sociology. 109 00:13:04,090 --> 00:13:11,980 Despite the empirical limitation of SPSS SMS study by detailed coding, categorising and concept development, 110 00:13:12,650 --> 00:13:17,139 the study contributes to a timely and relevant critique of governments. 111 00:13:17,140 --> 00:13:26,890 Dramaturgical metaphor. SPSS SMS interaction may represent a virtual backstage between SPSS SMS communicators, 112 00:13:27,370 --> 00:13:31,510 which is physically within a more inclusive front stage setting. 113 00:13:31,750 --> 00:13:40,820 But then in fact, the dramaturgical metaphor breaks down and may be replaced, or at least supplemented by the metaphor of layers. 114 00:13:43,270 --> 00:13:51,190 Although SPSS Sims must be regarded as an extraordinary case of communication, the phenomenon may be interest within. 115 00:13:51,190 --> 00:14:00,400 Interaction is sociology, because first, it challenges the notion that participation in conversation can be based on time and space alone. 116 00:14:00,700 --> 00:14:07,960 And second, it opens up for considering new levels of collaboration in presentation of cells. 117 00:14:09,910 --> 00:14:21,730 So what was the result of the study? First, the most important finding was the identification of the concept of layers of communicative transparency. 118 00:14:22,180 --> 00:14:29,780 It represents the what we will call conceptual generalisation of the study and. 119 00:14:29,850 --> 00:14:38,070 May be scrutinised by further studies of mediated communication, social media and so on by the concept. 120 00:14:38,280 --> 00:14:45,000 The contribution is not limited to a nerdy interest in the narrow phenomenon or ESP SMS, 121 00:14:45,540 --> 00:14:50,970 but provides an alternative sociological framework for studying social interaction. 122 00:14:51,390 --> 00:14:55,590 So that is actually the result of the finding of the study. 123 00:14:58,930 --> 00:15:02,380 The other example is quite differently motivated, 124 00:15:03,130 --> 00:15:10,780 as it was part of a Ph.D. research project around the Tillotson of the Arctic University in Tromso in Norway, 125 00:15:11,530 --> 00:15:20,080 dealing with the exploration of an online self-help group for adolescents aged 15 to 18 with a mentally ill parent. 126 00:15:21,070 --> 00:15:26,920 The study was action driven and set out to study the impact of such a self-help group, 127 00:15:27,370 --> 00:15:30,880 both by setting up and recruiting participants to the Web based forum, 128 00:15:31,630 --> 00:15:36,700 by observing interaction in the group as well as depth interviewing participants. 129 00:15:38,950 --> 00:15:46,030 Children and adolescents with whom parents with a mental illness are more likely to experience social isolation, 130 00:15:46,510 --> 00:15:55,900 additional caregiving responsibilities, financial hardship and disruptions because of unpredictable illness related parental behaviour. 131 00:15:56,890 --> 00:16:03,190 The part of the project that I will refer to in this talk draws on in the interviews with the group 132 00:16:03,190 --> 00:16:11,200 participants in which the meaning of the online self-help group in adolescents actual lives is explored. 133 00:16:11,410 --> 00:16:24,069 That is, we were interested in how the online participation patient had impact on the everyday offline life similar to the first example into 134 00:16:24,070 --> 00:16:34,389 use were also in this project analysed by detailed coding and categorisation through an inductive approach in which specific issues, 135 00:16:34,390 --> 00:16:38,710 events or processes are identified across the participants. 136 00:16:39,250 --> 00:16:48,010 Our aim was to identify the roles of the online self-help group in supporting adolescents, in managing everyday life with the mentally ill parent. 137 00:16:50,170 --> 00:16:53,200 During our categorisation of the coded into data, 138 00:16:53,200 --> 00:17:00,639 we identified three types of social processes that evolved through communication within the online 139 00:17:00,640 --> 00:17:08,860 self-help group Recognisability that is recognising each other similar experiences to openness, 140 00:17:09,430 --> 00:17:18,520 discussing issues that have been kept secret and three agency retaining independent, active steps towards plans and ambitions. 141 00:17:20,390 --> 00:17:23,209 In the first example, the SMS article, 142 00:17:23,210 --> 00:17:32,540 we identified ten different uses of space SMS and the three different social processes identified here is at the same analytical 143 00:17:32,540 --> 00:17:43,010 level as those ten uses that give some insight into the experiences of the adolescents which led us to these three categories. 144 00:17:45,340 --> 00:17:53,200 Participants told us that before joining the group, they had a sense of being the only one in the world with a mentally ill parent, 145 00:17:53,200 --> 00:17:57,100 and most had never met others in the similar family situation. 146 00:17:58,390 --> 00:18:04,720 Being part of the forum, facilitating sharing stories with online peers in contrast to other friends, 147 00:18:05,260 --> 00:18:10,160 because participants in the forum generally could understand the other's experiences. 148 00:18:10,180 --> 00:18:14,980 As one of them told us, there were some people who understood it, who read it. 149 00:18:15,610 --> 00:18:19,330 You don't get that with the friends who have grown up with healthy parents. 150 00:18:19,630 --> 00:18:24,850 They can't really put themselves in your situation the way someone who has been there can. 151 00:18:26,950 --> 00:18:33,399 Another participant talked about her friends easily chatting and laughing lightly about boys clothes, 152 00:18:33,400 --> 00:18:42,160 music and movies while she was paralysed by heavy worries about her mentally ill mother and incapable of engaging in the conversations. 153 00:18:43,120 --> 00:18:50,830 Reading in the forum about other similar experiences allowed her to be calmer and to stop worrying so much about not being normal. 154 00:18:52,600 --> 00:18:56,589 Accounts such as the above gave us the idea of the category. 155 00:18:56,590 --> 00:19:08,500 Recognisability. Further, they were talking about experiencing silence and lack of information about the illness and its consequences from parents, 156 00:19:08,800 --> 00:19:15,010 relatives, other adults or health professionals who knew about the parents illness. 157 00:19:15,970 --> 00:19:21,040 Moreover, the participants kept the parent's illness secret from friends, 158 00:19:21,580 --> 00:19:26,770 or at least very seldom told anyone about the experiences and emotions in detail. 159 00:19:27,580 --> 00:19:30,190 As one of the participants said during an interview, 160 00:19:30,850 --> 00:19:37,330 often it really feels wonderful because there are some things you have actually want to say for a long time, 161 00:19:37,720 --> 00:19:41,800 but there has never been anyone you feel can tell or the right moment to say it. 162 00:19:42,280 --> 00:19:50,410 It's just a relief to get it off your shoulders. Feeling anger towards ill parents made everything just worse. 163 00:19:50,440 --> 00:19:59,500 As another participant, participant noted. I had a guilty conscience because I was feeling sad and angry about all the stuff with Mum. 164 00:20:00,160 --> 00:20:08,890 The read that I had the same feelings as me anger, sadness and so on was good because when I felt as angry as [INAUDIBLE], 165 00:20:09,370 --> 00:20:12,640 I felt at the same time that I wasn't allowed to be angry. 166 00:20:15,130 --> 00:20:19,180 And we have to identify such accounts as dealing with the issue of openness. 167 00:20:20,590 --> 00:20:25,659 One participant explained that knowledge obtained from self-help group self-help 168 00:20:25,660 --> 00:20:31,000 group motivated her to manage the consequences of her mother's mental illness. 169 00:20:32,530 --> 00:20:40,420 She said, I understood more about what an illness like that involves and if so, how the others handled things. 170 00:20:40,930 --> 00:20:46,360 I understood then that it is possible to cope with matters instead of just suppressing them. 171 00:20:48,070 --> 00:20:55,240 Another participant put it like this. It's not as though everyone who is having a terrible time will go and kill themselves. 172 00:20:55,660 --> 00:20:59,290 They manage well in spite of it, and it's a burden they have. 173 00:20:59,560 --> 00:21:04,090 But they live normal lives all the same, and they are strong and resourceful people. 174 00:21:04,390 --> 00:21:05,920 That really does motivate you. 175 00:21:08,140 --> 00:21:18,280 One of the participants told us that the indications of normality she could find in the other stories were valuable sources for our own sense of hope, 176 00:21:18,280 --> 00:21:26,950 of living an ordinary life in the future. For instance, she mentioned that because one of the other participants had the boyfriend, 177 00:21:27,970 --> 00:21:34,120 she felt that she would have the chance to get a boyfriend, friends and live a completely normal life. 178 00:21:35,830 --> 00:21:40,300 Another participant told us that she, through the forum, 179 00:21:40,870 --> 00:21:49,840 understood that her problems didn't have anything to do with herself and that it became a very important part of making 180 00:21:50,080 --> 00:21:56,500 it possible for her to dare to talk to her ill mother and get it cleared up and have a better relationship with her. 181 00:21:58,480 --> 00:22:08,380 We agree with the latter accounts and the analytical category of agency that is returning independent, active steps towards plans and ambitions. 182 00:22:10,120 --> 00:22:17,980 Still, we have only identified categories of social processes related to applying the internal self forum once again. 183 00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:23,469 We need to search for a more generic concept that covers essential features of the 184 00:22:23,470 --> 00:22:29,080 development that these adolescents experience through participating in the Web forum. 185 00:22:33,150 --> 00:22:38,460 The participant experience out of the ordinary lives related to stigmatising situations, 186 00:22:38,760 --> 00:22:44,520 which leaves them alone with the difficulties participating in the forum. 187 00:22:44,550 --> 00:22:53,700 However, help in redefining what is experienced and perceived as not as abnormal as being normal for members in this specific community, 188 00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:57,750 observing this transfer from abnormal to normal, 189 00:22:58,050 --> 00:23:05,580 and that this transformation is related to the communication community that is being established in the forum hints towards 190 00:23:05,580 --> 00:23:16,500 the concept of communal normalisation by which a sense of normality is developed communally through the act of communication. 191 00:23:18,420 --> 00:23:26,700 By providing a space for participants explicit to be explicit about difficult emotions and out of the ordinary 192 00:23:26,700 --> 00:23:33,840 experiences to recognise them based on the participants own experiences and to accept frustration and anger. 193 00:23:34,410 --> 00:23:42,300 The forum provided an arena of openness in the emotions and reactions that the participants with in other social situations. 194 00:23:44,630 --> 00:23:53,780 The participants created an arena for communal normalisation in which they extended agency based on peer support and recognition, 195 00:23:54,290 --> 00:24:00,200 resulting in the lower threshold to talk to family, friends and professionals about their situations. 196 00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:11,330 The adolescents also took a more active role in managing the everyday lives with a mentally ill parent based on recognition and openness. 197 00:24:11,750 --> 00:24:19,460 The participants agency is shaped, reshaped and extended to enabling novel strategies to manage everyday life. 198 00:24:19,790 --> 00:24:23,750 Although surrounded by challenges of mental illness, 199 00:24:25,580 --> 00:24:34,430 our findings support previous studies of people's use of the Internet as contingent on particular needs and conditions in their everyday lives. 200 00:24:35,300 --> 00:24:41,270 But a main contribution is detailing social processes between the online and the offline 201 00:24:43,220 --> 00:24:49,280 and identifying a way of addressing such processes by potentially new concepts. 202 00:24:49,490 --> 00:24:59,690 If necessary, there is nothing in our study that points to computers normalisation as something that will occur in all support forums. 203 00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:09,650 However, our study has a more general application demonstrating that the potential of web based interaction to assist 204 00:25:09,650 --> 00:25:15,230 people risking stigma in experience in the everyday life is less out of the ordinary and more normal. 205 00:25:16,730 --> 00:25:22,610 Communal normalisation is the participants sense of normalisation that is normalisation for self, 206 00:25:22,940 --> 00:25:28,700 self situation and self-identity rather than about any change in the broader community. 207 00:25:29,330 --> 00:25:37,670 Therefore, although such a health self-help forum does not challenge the fundamental structure of health services, 208 00:25:38,090 --> 00:25:45,170 it provides great potential or agency for certain individuals experience of everyday lives on the margins of normality. 209 00:25:46,460 --> 00:25:51,920 Communal normalisation as a concept developed through the study of adolescents with mentally ill parents, 210 00:25:52,550 --> 00:25:58,370 may characterise generic process in which communication provides potential for increased 211 00:25:58,370 --> 00:26:05,540 recognisability openness and agency across a group of individuals who may expect similar processes, 212 00:26:05,540 --> 00:26:13,850 both in physical and online groups, and may also extend the concept of other processes than the three identified in our study. 213 00:26:17,980 --> 00:26:21,580 So moving back to where we started, 214 00:26:22,360 --> 00:26:34,360 what do these two examples tell us about the point of qualitative research and about the points of departure for qualitative research? 215 00:26:35,380 --> 00:26:41,830 The two illustrated projects started from very different motivating motivating forces. 216 00:26:42,220 --> 00:26:46,750 The first an independent, non funded curiosity with novel use of mobile phones, 217 00:26:47,170 --> 00:26:52,690 and the second a Ph.D. research project externally funded to study the potential 218 00:26:53,140 --> 00:26:57,400 of web based self-help groups for adolescents with mentally ill parents. 219 00:26:59,830 --> 00:27:10,390 But they share important points of departure, a strong interest in exploring the details or experiences as interview data. 220 00:27:11,290 --> 00:27:14,410 The projects are both inductively oriented. 221 00:27:14,770 --> 00:27:23,530 They start with dig into the messy individual and social experiences and continue with detailed coding and categorisation. 222 00:27:25,210 --> 00:27:33,310 They also share the analytical aimed at end points, reaching at the generic or conceptual level of knowledge. 223 00:27:35,110 --> 00:27:41,950 The concepts developed layers of communicative transparency and communal normalisation do 224 00:27:41,950 --> 00:27:46,840 make sense also without an interest for smmes or adolescents with mental ill parents. 225 00:27:47,740 --> 00:27:54,040 The concepts contribute to a wider understanding of mediated communication as layers and how some 226 00:27:54,040 --> 00:28:00,100 networks networks of communication may may strengthen individuals ability to cope with different, 227 00:28:00,310 --> 00:28:08,200 difficult life situations. As noted by one of the Fathers of Grounded Theory by Nick Glazer, 228 00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:14,950 the concepts need to have an what he calls an enduring grab once established, then never fade. 229 00:28:15,610 --> 00:28:22,120 In fact, it means that they are not depending on cases or samples on which they have been developed. 230 00:28:22,360 --> 00:28:29,620 But trig is some kind of analytic case that could be relevant for further studies. 231 00:28:33,670 --> 00:28:41,379 As mentioned in the beginning of this talk, I want to return to the issue of a framework titled Stepwise Deductive Induction 232 00:28:41,380 --> 00:28:47,170 by which by which a mainly inductive method aims at concepts or theories, 233 00:28:48,010 --> 00:28:51,040 and with these concepts represent generalisation. 234 00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:56,200 It is as a conceptual generalisation necessary. 235 00:28:59,220 --> 00:29:07,800 Yeah. Um, for instance, in the two studies mentioned, generalisation is developed through the concepts. 236 00:29:08,820 --> 00:29:15,690 This is very different from statistical generalisation where a sample is supposed to represent a population. 237 00:29:16,440 --> 00:29:23,309 Rather, this is a generalisation at a more theoretical level where concepts are supposed to capture generic 238 00:29:23,310 --> 00:29:29,880 processes or experiences identified through detailed qualitative exploration and analysis. 239 00:29:31,110 --> 00:29:41,790 While quantitative studies aims at identifying relations between independent and dependable variables, qualitative studies aims at identifying, 240 00:29:41,790 --> 00:29:50,280 identifying ways to understand processes and experiences for such understanding to have value in addition to specific case knowledge. 241 00:29:50,610 --> 00:29:55,170 It needs to be generic. So here, 242 00:29:55,770 --> 00:30:04,049 the SDI model with strong concern in generating very detailed empirical data and treating 243 00:30:04,050 --> 00:30:10,290 data in the way that maintains detailed content throughout coding and categorisation. 244 00:30:10,950 --> 00:30:21,239 The model is basically inductive. However, as illustrated here on the right side, each step has a feedback loop, 245 00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:25,950 which is mainly a quality control to strengthen the model's reliability. 246 00:30:26,400 --> 00:30:32,430 For instance, as mentioned, testing preliminary concepts against those category. 247 00:30:33,690 --> 00:30:46,220 We use them against against those categories that did not directly generate conceptual. 248 00:30:46,230 --> 00:30:50,940 The conceptual idea is supposed to nuance and validate the concept. 249 00:30:51,150 --> 00:30:55,770 On the one hand, are they precise enough? On the other, are they too general? 250 00:30:57,180 --> 00:31:01,230 Both concepts generated through the two studies illustrated in this presentation 251 00:31:01,920 --> 00:31:06,360 are rather general and hence covering essential aspects of all the categories. 252 00:31:07,140 --> 00:31:13,620 They are obviously precise enough to survive through the review process towards publication, which is often the ultimate test. 253 00:31:14,580 --> 00:31:24,090 Precision may in other cases be strengthened by only using a subset of categories when moving towards conceptualisation stage. 254 00:31:26,130 --> 00:31:33,170 Looking closely at the SDI model, the coding and coding tests and so on with demand, the next read at least a double lecture. 255 00:31:33,180 --> 00:31:38,930 So we leave that model for now. And I know that you are going to work quite a lot with analysts tomorrow. 256 00:31:38,940 --> 00:31:41,310 I think it is um, 257 00:31:41,940 --> 00:31:52,740 because most importantly and way to develop the potential from qualitative studies and ambition towards concepts and theories should be maintained. 258 00:31:53,250 --> 00:32:01,229 You find this in significant degree within the social science disciplines, but as qualitative research methods creep up on, 259 00:32:01,230 --> 00:32:06,870 for instance, health and medical sciences as well as a vast range of interdisciplinary programs, 260 00:32:07,350 --> 00:32:12,600 we often find that ambition for analysis is more on the descriptive level, 261 00:32:13,650 --> 00:32:23,880 but sorting empirical extracts at worst or categories at best can never avoid being an anecdotal of those systematically presented. 262 00:32:25,500 --> 00:32:25,860 The Why. 263 00:32:25,860 --> 00:32:34,200 The popularity of quality research is therefore not only a blessing for those of us concerned with the development and quality of such methods, 264 00:32:34,530 --> 00:32:37,380 but also an increasing challenge challenge. 265 00:32:38,460 --> 00:32:47,820 I repeatedly rejected PhD thesis within Medicine and Information Sciences, applying qualitative research designs but with only a descriptive ambition. 266 00:32:49,110 --> 00:32:55,580 So to return to the suitable research question for research, the science, what are they? 267 00:32:58,470 --> 00:33:06,390 They often start with how or why and aim at understanding, not describing nor comparing. 268 00:33:07,710 --> 00:33:16,650 And as argued in this talk, the way this understanding is developed and presented should aim at a generic analytic level. 269 00:33:18,870 --> 00:33:27,150 Qualitative analysis is a is a most challenging task from an intellectual point of view and a no cross cuts. 270 00:33:27,570 --> 00:33:33,809 Having said this, the systematic approach presented in the SDI method is supposed to help the research of keeping 271 00:33:33,810 --> 00:33:40,650 track of an inductive development and reduce complexity by moving through separate steps. 272 00:33:42,810 --> 00:33:45,360 Now I'm coming to an end. 273 00:33:46,230 --> 00:33:58,650 What I tried to do in this talk is to expound on how qualitative research should aim at a generic and some generic insight through concepts and. 274 00:33:58,710 --> 00:34:07,050 Conceptual dramatisation, you may see the talk as a warning against jumping into qualitative research, 275 00:34:07,770 --> 00:34:14,760 or you may see it as an inspiration for performing qualitative research that is more ambitious and less anecdotal. 276 00:34:15,150 --> 00:34:30,710 I guess it is meant to be both. And I finish this talk by showing you this nice evening impression of my sociology clinic in my hometown, Trondheim. 277 00:34:32,850 --> 00:34:37,200 This is where we do sociology in downtown Toronto. Thank you. 278 00:34:43,360 --> 00:34:46,260 And I think there are there is some time for questions and comments. 279 00:34:46,270 --> 00:34:56,730 If you do have I mean, there is I think the at least the start answer is it's probably there is a clash of disciplines. 280 00:34:58,300 --> 00:34:59,800 There is a crash of, let's say, 281 00:34:59,800 --> 00:35:13,420 health medicine disciplines in which you do have a standard strategy of presenting a systematic overview of findings or empirical insight. 282 00:35:14,200 --> 00:35:18,280 If you look at the way, let's say, quantitative studies are presented, 283 00:35:18,580 --> 00:35:27,220 it's usually a large presentation of results and then perhaps short speculative and discussion. 284 00:35:28,060 --> 00:35:36,170 Um, and I mean, because these hypothetical detective strategies doesn't actually produce any theory. 285 00:35:36,190 --> 00:35:40,810 It could test theories or test concept, but not the other way around. 286 00:35:42,340 --> 00:35:50,860 And then when you when you move that way to think about presenting research and publishing and doing research into quality studies, 287 00:35:50,860 --> 00:35:54,580 you end up with with these purely descriptive quality studies. 288 00:35:55,030 --> 00:36:00,790 And we do see those publish in a lot of journals in, for instance, 289 00:36:00,790 --> 00:36:07,900 in different health sciences and medicine, but also in a lot of in the discipline in the journals as well. 290 00:36:09,930 --> 00:36:16,270 The the challenge, as I see it is that if you're a social researcher, a sociologist, 291 00:36:16,270 --> 00:36:21,969 uh, uh, some kind of social anthropologist working together with, let's say, 292 00:36:21,970 --> 00:36:31,600 people in the medical sciences, and you end up having or the chance only to publish these descriptive analysis, 293 00:36:32,170 --> 00:36:35,660 you are challenged within your own discipline, so to speak. 294 00:36:35,680 --> 00:36:41,500 So that's and I've been working quite a lot with, with people in the medical, medical sciences especially. 295 00:36:41,950 --> 00:36:45,729 And um, it becomes, 296 00:36:45,730 --> 00:36:51,730 at least my experience was coming to a point where I got really frustrated because 297 00:36:52,870 --> 00:36:58,960 actually we ended up with publishing things that I thought lacked a chapter in a way, 298 00:36:59,830 --> 00:37:01,120 and that that was, for me, 299 00:37:01,120 --> 00:37:08,020 the most important chapter or the most important section that this discussion section where more or less everything theoretical happens. 300 00:37:08,590 --> 00:37:19,320 Um, and so how to solve that problem with my way to solve it was to, um, 301 00:37:19,840 --> 00:37:25,629 kind of looked after myself that I actually had some time to write my own articles or 302 00:37:25,630 --> 00:37:34,600 to bring in some of the social science people and actually not let all the group, 303 00:37:34,810 --> 00:37:38,680 uh, write all the articles in a way. So that way. 304 00:37:38,830 --> 00:37:47,260 So now when we work in these, into this main group, we try to make a few purely sociological article, for example, 305 00:37:47,260 --> 00:37:57,100 in the project to maintain this concept development as part of the project, although that's only one of four articles at least. 306 00:37:57,100 --> 00:38:02,470 But we have, we have produced, uh, sociology and not only descriptive analysis. 307 00:38:03,190 --> 00:38:10,990 I'm not sure if that was all the of the question, but, but I think it's, it's, it's our responsibility then to, 308 00:38:11,530 --> 00:38:19,240 uh, to, to kind of go back to the team and say, well, now we wrote this small conceptual article. 309 00:38:19,420 --> 00:38:22,470 Take a look at it, please, and let, let us discuss. 310 00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:31,330 Isn't it something that we could perhaps also include towards, let's say, the interdisciplinary group? 311 00:38:31,330 --> 00:38:38,800 I think because that was the idea of the told the point, the quality of all the point is perhaps this conceptual development. 312 00:38:39,220 --> 00:38:47,230 And if we are able to kind of challenge also people from the medical sciences, health sciences, the interdisciplinary programs and so on, 313 00:38:47,560 --> 00:38:55,390 that what is we need to take a step further than, than only the script of putting of the categories or the themes. 314 00:38:56,030 --> 00:38:58,990 Uh, it's hard work. I know I've given up many times. 315 00:38:59,230 --> 00:39:08,530 Uh, but, but it's kind of ideal if you, if you work for, uh, let's say a few, a few years with the same group. 316 00:39:09,430 --> 00:39:18,100 So taking the responsible to educating people, uh, how we could make use of qualitative analysis in a, let's make it a bit more advanced level. 317 00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:31,330 That's a very good question. We did, uh, two years back, uh, we found out that we would like to apply sociology very practically in, 318 00:39:31,720 --> 00:39:39,459 into municipal planning, uh, uh, evaluation projects and so on. 319 00:39:39,460 --> 00:39:49,290 And we also, uh. Saw that kind of thing within the university, this ivory tower kind of thing. 320 00:39:49,290 --> 00:39:56,700 It's not ivory not not not exactly a tower like in Oxford, but, um, which you do have to cover. 321 00:39:57,010 --> 00:39:59,940 Um, but. But very protected in a way. 322 00:40:00,540 --> 00:40:09,899 So what we did was to, I got a group of students and see the candidates and some of my colleagues down in the city. 323 00:40:09,900 --> 00:40:15,780 And we established this kind of sociology shop. It used to be a hairdressers, and we kind of rebuilt it. 324 00:40:16,140 --> 00:40:23,790 Uh, and, uh, what is happening that people actually come to us because they think they need some sociological treatment? 325 00:40:24,390 --> 00:40:33,570 Um, so the name social work is Polyclinic, which is on the top of the, it means actually sociological outpatient clinic. 326 00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:38,000 Uh, and the so, and it work really well. 327 00:40:38,010 --> 00:40:44,670 So we do a lot of, uh, work together with the municipality, with a lot of architects, city planners. 328 00:40:45,030 --> 00:40:50,550 Uh, we have had an evaluation project which is more kind of standard contract research, really. 329 00:40:50,850 --> 00:40:56,060 But what we do is that we, we have events, book launches and, and so on. 330 00:40:56,070 --> 00:40:59,640 So. So actually it's bringing sociology to the people. 331 00:41:00,690 --> 00:41:08,630 And it's, uh, it's, it's a kind of a voluntary work, but it's also, it's kind of a separate enterprise, but, 332 00:41:08,750 --> 00:41:19,040 but more and now in, in we're moving towards the festival season now we do have also these, uh, a camper van that we use. 333 00:41:19,080 --> 00:41:23,040 So, uh, also with the name, uh, the sociology clinic. 334 00:41:23,040 --> 00:41:32,190 And we use that in different, different, um, festivals to study the community that is developing the festivals. 335 00:41:32,610 --> 00:41:42,650 And this summer we also have a collaboration with the, uh, with a health institute in Norway, uh, to study the way, uh, 336 00:41:42,690 --> 00:41:53,510 different alcohol and other, uh, to what we call it like uh smoking hashish and things like that are used in festival. 337 00:41:53,520 --> 00:41:58,740 So we do have a both health aspect and I, we do have a common community aspect of it. 338 00:41:59,160 --> 00:42:06,360 So that that's what we do. We, we, we bring sociology into, into social situations like the festival, like the streets and so on. 339 00:42:06,750 --> 00:42:08,340 So that, that's more as part of this. 340 00:42:08,970 --> 00:42:20,040 Um, they should set something that, well, I first started funding it from my own pocket, um, because I had so, so, 341 00:42:20,040 --> 00:42:27,840 so strong beliefs in it that I had was of course said that we will be able to, to pay that back with projects. 342 00:42:28,500 --> 00:42:33,570 So when we, when we do and that that happens, so when we do a project with the municipality, 343 00:42:33,630 --> 00:42:42,310 we do actually one project with one of the large property owners as well to develop in an area in the city then. 344 00:42:42,570 --> 00:42:48,180 So, so we do have this contract that actually make us able to pay the rent and that kind of stuff. 345 00:42:48,660 --> 00:43:00,440 So it's paid with all these projects. And also it brings, uh, students and these PHC candidates in the midst of society in the city in, 346 00:43:00,440 --> 00:43:03,840 in kind of different situations, problems and, and so on. 347 00:43:04,320 --> 00:43:08,550 Uh, so it becomes a very practical sociology in a way. 348 00:43:09,090 --> 00:43:15,780 Uh, but it just started a bit less than two years ago and uh, but it's starting to work quite well. 349 00:43:16,260 --> 00:43:24,809 And I think it for us it's been quite important that actually people discover that this place exist and by discovering it, 350 00:43:24,810 --> 00:43:32,760 they also start to discover what sociology is. So that that's I think that's important as well because no one have an idea what it is. 351 00:43:33,300 --> 00:43:41,010 Some believe it's this kind of social work and uh, but that's more or less the closest that, that people come, I think. 352 00:43:41,520 --> 00:43:48,000 Uh, so it's kind of promoting what, what, what it is and what we could do and giving the idea to the students as well, 353 00:43:48,450 --> 00:43:55,979 what they could and in what ways they could apply sociology, starting to work and so on different every time. 354 00:43:55,980 --> 00:44:01,800 And it's a really good question because that's that's the most, I guess, most challenging part of it, 355 00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:11,990 because then you have to rely on creativity, ideas, visualisation, but then again you don't have to work alone. 356 00:44:12,570 --> 00:44:16,649 So I quite often work together with, uh, with other people who've been my colleagues, 357 00:44:16,650 --> 00:44:21,389 with my students on what is this, what, what, what does this look like in your head? 358 00:44:21,390 --> 00:44:31,320 What if you imagine what it is? What is it? Um, so it's, um, and also it's playing with terms and birds and so on. 359 00:44:31,320 --> 00:44:37,640 So it's, uh, and, and it's, it's probably the most demanding part of the project. 360 00:44:37,690 --> 00:44:41,490 It's a good question, but, and I'm trying to get to point to. 361 00:44:42,260 --> 00:44:48,799 To be able to say what it is, how to do it, but it's quite hard to do it except from music examples. 362 00:44:48,800 --> 00:44:58,010 But I agree with you the examples. It doesn't give you the standardised answer how to do it, but I think to play with words and and so on. 363 00:44:59,810 --> 00:45:07,130 Irving Goffman that I mention was really good at using metaphors, and that that's that's another way to do it. 364 00:45:08,300 --> 00:45:12,500 I mean, that would be perfect if it fits with the concept already existing because then it 365 00:45:12,500 --> 00:45:18,500 means that you would kind of rely it's related to the research already being published. 366 00:45:18,920 --> 00:45:24,440 And also because I think that's the way research needs to be done. 367 00:45:24,800 --> 00:45:35,960 Also these, uh, um, I'm keen on having my students, my and my colleagues testing these concepts as well because that needs to be done to, 368 00:45:36,180 --> 00:45:40,040 to validate or perhaps trust, transform ideas and so on. 369 00:45:40,490 --> 00:45:43,920 So that would be just perfect. I mean, it means that you are kind of. 370 00:45:44,660 --> 00:45:51,000 And it also if, um, if you find yourself, uh, let's say, um, 371 00:45:51,440 --> 00:46:03,200 identifying a phenomenon being published or front of someone in an article context, those people, because you could, I mean, 372 00:46:03,200 --> 00:46:08,060 you could read articles, but don't, don't hesitate to contact people but present something that, 373 00:46:08,240 --> 00:46:16,280 that, that kind of, um, uh, kind of responds in some way to your, your own analysis. 374 00:46:17,060 --> 00:46:20,840 People are usually very happy to have that kind of questions. 375 00:46:20,990 --> 00:46:28,220 It could transparent. So. Uh, so that's why we also when we, when we use coding, we usually work with hyper research, 376 00:46:28,610 --> 00:46:33,170 some work with and we will, there's a lot of different software to do that kind of thing. 377 00:46:33,620 --> 00:46:40,810 The good thing with working with software is it's quite easy to show afterwards exactly the stages. 378 00:46:41,210 --> 00:46:48,740 Uh, what kind of code did you develop? Uh, how do the codes feed into categories? 379 00:46:48,740 --> 00:46:53,600 Exactly what codes that feed into some categories. Making some examples, for instance. 380 00:46:54,020 --> 00:46:59,240 And then it's much easier for, for a reader to understand what's going on. 381 00:47:00,020 --> 00:47:03,229 And then to back the other question when they come to the concept. 382 00:47:03,230 --> 00:47:12,379 Well, that that's more like, like, like a playful thing that's not that necessary to, uh, to have a specific system for. 383 00:47:12,380 --> 00:47:20,240 But, but anyway, uh, to show the way you organise towards some more generic, uh, 384 00:47:20,360 --> 00:47:26,870 concepts, you need to do that and invite people into understanding what is happening. 385 00:47:27,410 --> 00:47:31,639 It's not a magic thing, it's actually systematic work. 386 00:47:31,640 --> 00:47:42,350 So, and we need to show that all the time. Also I, I work with working group and that's, that's what, what we do in, in the clinic quite much. 387 00:47:42,350 --> 00:47:51,770 We work in groups and for instance when we do coding we or we often start with coding on the lot on the kind of a large, 388 00:47:52,070 --> 00:47:56,389 uh, having a screen, uh, projector. 389 00:47:56,390 --> 00:48:04,520 And then we start coding in a group of five, six, seven, seven people and then we start coding into use, for instance, uh, 390 00:48:04,520 --> 00:48:14,420 code coding one or two, three into use before we split the work or leave that responsibility to one or two so that we kind of, 391 00:48:14,900 --> 00:48:20,150 uh, we try to maintain this learning process all the time, every project that we, 392 00:48:20,630 --> 00:48:23,720 that we work together and that that's another thing with working with software, 393 00:48:24,160 --> 00:48:29,420 it's easier to work together if we sit in front of a computer or using a projector. 394 00:48:29,600 --> 00:48:38,150 That's, I mean, I and my students, um, that's quite of the fun part of the project. 395 00:48:38,450 --> 00:48:45,530 And if you sit alone all the time, it's not a fun part of the project. Oh, it's really, really important to have fun in these difficult parts. 396 00:48:46,190 --> 00:48:55,009 So I find good colleagues, students and other people that when we work in teams and project, that's kind of self-evident. 397 00:48:55,010 --> 00:49:02,660 But quite often you are asked to do that job individually, which is it's not the most effective all the time.