QUALITATIVE METHODS AND RESEARCH TECHNOLOGIES

QUALITATIVE METHODS AND RESEARCH TECHNOLOGIES
Published 19 January 2016 in: News

Dates:

Conference: September 1 – 3, 2016

Workshops: August 31, 2016

The Conference will be held in the modern conference centre of the Jagiellonian University–Auditorium Maximum

address: Krupnicza 33, Kraków

As technologically becomes more advanced and pervasive, we must question its influence on our society, on our interactions and on our research methods and data. We now know new ways of collecting data, new approaches to data analysis, and also new kinds of data. These new data forms include continuous audio/video recording and photographs (underpinning visual analyses), the Internet, eye-tracking devices and GPS trackers. Qualitative researchers have brand new territories for our research.

The omnipresent digitalization and a significant advancement of data analysis software both contribute to technologicising the research process.

It is, however, important to emphasise that within the area of qualitative research technologies have a broader meaning far transcending mere equipment and software. Even more specialized know how, hand in hand with accumulative research experience offers new procedures, tools, techniques, and sophisticated methods that help organise every stage of the research process. Coding procedures, matrices, transcription systems and schemes for annotating diagrams—all these contribute to methodological know how, part of the so-called research technology.

Thus, the meaning of technology within the field of qualitative research has another dimension—it can be seen as a way of standardizing and formalizing the methodology itself.

These technologies require debate on opportunities, threats, practices, merits, disadvantages, solutions, and a diverse array of methodological, epistemological, and ontological approaches that qualitative social researchers confront (or should confront) when conducting research. Perhaps even in research methods, we can say “man makes the tools and the tools make the man.” Giving space for reflection and discussion on the abovementioned issues, we invite novice and experienced researchers to participate in and contribute to the forthcoming Conference, which encompasses—but is not limited to—the following areas:

Analytical procedures, schemes, and standards as research technologies
Paper-and-pencil instruments for qualitative researchers
Discovering new kinds of qualitative data
Ethnography and qualitative field research in a technological era
Digital and sensory methodology
From telephone to VoIP—communication technologies used in qualitative research
The digitalization of qualitative research process
The application of emergent technologies and hi-tech equipment
Social media and online data collection
Netnography, Internet-based and hypermedia methods
Mobile and geospatial technologies’ impact on qualitative research
The use of qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS)
The development of visual analysis and social iconography
Conversational Analysis and Discourse Analysis in the digital context
Storytelling and narratives through technology
Video and photo elicited interviews, participatory video, video walks, etc.
Developing Grounded Theory with technological support
Contemplative inquiry and research technologies
Research in Psychotherapy. Qualitative technologies and approaches
Digital repositories and qualitative data archiving
Methodological challenges posed by research technologies
Ethical dilemmas and research standards in the digital world
Exploring technological knowledge and research know how
Embodiment and digital communication
and other issues related to qualitative methods, epistemological considerations, and research praxis