Download full text
(600.2Kb)
Citation Suggestion
Please use the following Persistent Identifier (PID) to cite this document:
https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-288369
Exports for your reference manager
Making thinking visible with Atlas.ti: computer assisted qualitative analysis as textual practices
Denken mit Atlas.ti sichtbar machen: computer-unterstützte qualitative Datenanalyse als textuelle Praxis
[journal article]
Abstract
'How is a new quality of reading, which we call 'sociological understanding', created during the process of qualitative analysis? A methodological (conventional) answer to this question usually speaks of mental processes and conceptual work. This paper suggests a different view - sociological rather... view more
'How is a new quality of reading, which we call 'sociological understanding', created during the process of qualitative analysis? A methodological (conventional) answer to this question usually speaks of mental processes and conceptual work. This paper suggests a different view - sociological rather than methodological; or more precisely a view inspired by a contemporary sociology of science. It describes qualitative analysis as a set of material practices. Taking grounded theory methodology and the work with the computer programme Atlas.ti as an example, it is argued that thinking is inseparable from doing even in this domain. It is argued that by adopting the suggested perspective we might be better able to speak of otherwise hardly graspable processes of qualitative analysis in more accountable and instructable ways. Further, software packages would be better understood not only as 'mere tools' for coding and retrieving, but also as complex virtual environments for embodied and practice-based knowledge making. Finally, grounded theory methodology might appear in a somewhat different light: when described not in terms of methodological or theoretical concepts but rather in terms of what we practically do with the analysed data, it becomes perfectly compatible with the radical constructivist, textualist, or even post-structuralist paradigms of interpretation (from which it has allegedly departed by a long way).' (author's abstract)|... view less
Keywords
grounded theory; reality; sociology of knowledge; analysis; coding; visualization; paradigm; constructivism; data; qualitative method; software; thinking; interpretation
Classification
Methods and Techniques of Data Collection and Data Analysis, Statistical Methods, Computer Methods
Research Design
Sociology of Knowledge
Method
theory application; applied research; basic research
Free Keywords
Computer-unterstützte qualitative Datenanalyse; Textualität; Lesen und Schreiben; Mensch und Maschine
Document language
English
Publication Year
2007
Page/Pages
p. 276-298
Journal
Historical Social Research, Supplement (2007) 19
ISSN
0936-6784
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed