SOCI 2001 Lecture 11: Lecture 11
Document Summary
Soci 2001 lecture 11: applying qualitative methods march 29 th. Mills" notion of the sociological imagination" is particularly important, as he argued for the need to connect private troubles" with public issues". This situates an issue within a social and historical context, rather than applying a simplified individualistic lens to complex social problems. Qualitative research is adaptive and flexible, meaning that we do not have a strictly adhere to our research design as we move through the research process. This is not reflect a quality issue" with our research design, but rather allows us to be attuned with our data. In quantitative studies, the research design is constructed in a way that aims for generalizable findings. However, in qualitative research the focus is on understanding a social phenomenon in-depth within a specific context. While qualitative research does not aim to produce generalizable findings, we do recognize that there are generic social processes.