Musings
General musings about marketing and social research, plain language, linguistics and anything else that takes my fancy. 
I have written elsewhere on this site that it is mistake to equate qual analysis with quant analysis. The most deep-seated of all the assumptions that equate the two, is the assumption that all forms of analysis should:
- Occur at the end of fieldwork; and
- Be conducted by the researcher, not the participants.
Best practice in qual analysis is the opposite of this, because the researcher starts to analyse when fieldwork starts.
My latest insight takes this a step further:
- Best practice qual research uses analytical techniques as interviewing techniques.
The analysis techniques that this applies most to are:
- Narrative analysis
- Semiotic analysis
Both of these can be conducted after the fieldwork (or before), but they can also be used IN the fieldwork. A simple example:
- Present an image to participants in a group
- Ask them to tell you the story captured by the image - who should be in this scene? what happened before this? What will happen next? This 'who' what' structure comes from narrative analysis.
