28 - 31 August 2013
Torino, Italy

RN20 – Qualitative Methods

Coordinators:
Bernt Schnettler schnettler@uni-bayreuth.de University of Bayreuth, Germany
Katarina Jacobsson Katarina.Jacobsson@soch.lu.se Lund University, Sweden

Today, qualitative research is firmly established in sociology and other social science disciplines. Over the past years, the ESA Research Network Qualitative Methods has established a European platform for researchers rooted in diverse methodological traditions. RN 20 has gathered a large number of scholars and leading experts in the field to discuss cutting edge issues in qualitative research. It has created firm ties among qualitative researchers in a large number or European countries and maintains close relations with scholars in other world regions.

For Torino 2013, we invite papers dealing with all aspects of founding theories, methodology and practice of qualitative research. We are particularly interested in presentations related to the conference theme. How can qualitative research contribute to shed light on the origins, trajectories and effects of crisis? What is the critical potential of qualitative research? What methods and research strategies are suitable for studying change?

Paper proposals should include either reports on substantial research, methodological reflection or theoretical discussions concerning the grounding of qualitative research. Proposals can be allocated to the following sessions. In addition, we welcome papers to other areas not included in this call, which will later be assigned to further sessions. Sessions 1 and 2 are especially dedicated for work in progress and PhD-projects.

Your paper may also address one of the following areas (please indicate):

Methods for studying visual data (still images and film) – Discourse analysis and critical discourse analysis – Qualitative research and sociological theory – Studying social situation, social scenes and social worlds – Qualitative research on science, technology and innovation – Qualitative methods for social memory research – Qualitative research on migration – Evaluating qualitative research and qualitative evaluation methods – Contemporary ethnography – Grounded theory research – Ethnomethodology and conversation analysis – Comparative qualitative research – Gender in qualitative research – Qualitative criminology – Qualitative methods for the analysis of social problems – Qualitative research in intimate settings – Qualitative research in medical settings – Qualitative studies in service and commercial fields – Interview and focus group research – Documentary and textual analysis – Combining qualitative and quantitative research: Mixed methods and Triangulation – Practitioners, policymakers and qualitative research – Qualitative market research – Applied qualitative research – Archiving qualitative data – Innovations in qualitative methods – Other topics associated with qualitative research (Open call)

Sessions

Joint Sessions

  • 07_20JS28Sport and the Visual: New Developments and Opportunities

    Joint session with RN28 – Society and Sports

    Chair: Roger Penn<r.penn@qub.ac.uk>, Queen’s University Belfast Ajit Singh<ajit.singh@uni-bielefeld.de>, University of Bielefeld

    In recent years there has been an enormous increase in the use of visual data within sociology. This has taken broadly two paths. The first has involved the development of analyses of visual data that have been constructed externally in the form of photographs, video, text, film, television and graffiti. The second involves the production of visual data by sociologists themselves as part of their research activity. This has become much easier with the advent of digital cameras and camcorders. This ‘visual turn’ has raised a wide range of interesting questions, both of a methodological nature and from a broad theoretical angle. It also raises important ethical questions concerning the legality or appropriateness of such visual imagery. Since sport generates social interactions, which are largely based on physical expressions and bodily movements, it constitutes a privileged field for the development of visual sociology. Hence, this session will aim to bring together sociologists who work in this area in relation to sport. Themes of interest will include substantive analyses, as well as methodological issues (particularly how to break out of the ‘quantitative-qualitative’ divide) and theoretical contributions.

  • 09_20JS21JS28Doing Social Research on Sports. Methodological and Empirical Challenges (1)

    Joint session with RN21 – Quantitative Methods and RN28 – Society and Sports

    Chair: Alessandro Porrovecchio <alessandro.porrovecchio@gmail.com>, University of Turin Ajit Singh <ajit.singh@uni-bielefeld.de>, University of Bielefeld Katarina Jacobsson <Katarina.Jacobsson@soch.lu.se>, Lund University

    Within the sociology of sports there is relatively little problematisation of the different methodologies, which are currently available. It seems therefore important to analyze what has been achieved so far and what the future holds: this session is designed to mark out future directions for researchers interested in contesting/reformulating our understandings of knowledge production in the sociology of sport and physical culture. In order to contribute to these streams of research and to open new horizons for further investigation, we invite potential contributors to submit abstracts that elaborate experiences of empirical approaches to research on bodies, sports, and physical cultures, based on qualitative and/or quantitative strategies, as well as mixed methods. We are particularly interested in essays that expose the challenges, the emerging issues and the solutions in combining methodologically innovative approaches and evaluation programs in order to analyze the representations and meanings of practices, identities, bodies, movements, and anatomies.

  • 10_20JS21JS28Doing Social Research on Sports. Methodological and Empirical Challenges (2)

    Joint session with RN21 – Quantitative Methods and RN28 – Society and Sports

    Chair: Ajit Singh <ajit.singh@uni-bielefeld.de>, University of Bielefeld Alessandro Porrovecchio <alessandro.porrovecchio@gmail.com>, University of Turin Katarina Jacobsson <Katarina.Jacobsson@soch.lu.se>, Lund University

    Within the sociology of sports there is relatively little problematisation of the different methodologies, which are currently available. It seems therefore important to analyze what has been achieved so far and what the future holds: this session is designed to mark out future directions for researchers interested in contesting/reformulating our understandings of knowledge production in the sociology of sport and physical culture. In order to contribute to these streams of research and to open new horizons for further investigation, we invite potential contributors to submit abstracts that elaborate experiences of empirical approaches to research on bodies, sports, and physical cultures, based on qualitative and/or quantitative strategies, as well as mixed methods. We are particularly interested in essays that expose the challenges, the emerging issues and the solutions in combining methodologically innovative approaches and evaluation programs in order to analyze the representations and meanings of practices, identities, bodies, movements, and anatomies.

  • 11JS20JS28Emotions, Objectification and Reflexivity in Qualitative Body and Sport Research

    Joint session with RN28 – Society and Sports and RN11 – Sociology of emotions

    Chairs: Monica Aceti, Haifa Tlili, Sven Ismer & Katarina Jacobsson

    We invite researchers working on subjects that engage the body in situations of various interactions (physical, sports, arts, in professional or leisure situation) to question their practices and their emotional commitment in their field. Three perspectives will be favoured.

    • Discuss the opportunities, limitations and bias of different versions of participant observation. One of the main issues is to question the researcher’s choice when faced with the challenging dialectic of subjective and emotional connection to the field and the aim of “axiological neutrality” required by the scientific posture. An object held at a distance or “blindness” in the field? Therefore, we will question the different types and occurrences of ethnocentrism, androcentrism an hegemonic Doxa which very often remain invisible.
    • Take the measurement, in the objectification work, on the importance of autobiographical determinations, in order to clarify the researcher’s situated point of view (age, sexuality, social class, sex, race, etc.). We will examine in particular the heuristic advantages, which this involvement can contribute to the construction of a scientific object or on the contrary, it may misrepresent the content.
    • The emotions of the researcher in the field have a crucial impact on the way he or she perceives reality which has been widely neglected by methodological debates. We encourage contributions that reflect on the researcher’s affectivity and its impact on the collection and interpretation of data.

    Ultimately, we invite the presenters to make a reflexive return on their research subject by shifting the focus on the social, cultural, spatiotemporal or even, in connection with biographical transformations (accidents, maternity, mourning, etc.) or structural events (institutional changes, crisis, disaster, etc.).

  • 17_11JS20JS28Emotions, Objectification and Reflexivity in Qualitative Body and Sport Research (1)

    Joint session with RN11 – Sociology of emotions and RN28 – Society and Sports

    Chair: Monica Aceti <monica.aceti@unifr.ch>, University of Strasbourg Katarina Jacobsson <Katarina.Jacobsson@soch.lu.se>, Lund University Haifa Tlili <tlilihaifa1@gmail.com>, Paris Descartes University

    We invite researchers working on subjects that engage the body in situations of various interactions (physical, sports, arts, in professional or leisure situation) to question their practices and their emotional commitment in their field. Three perspectives will be favoured. •Discuss the opportunities, limitations and bias of different versions of participant observation. One of the main issues is to question the researcher’s choice when faced with the challenging dialectic of subjective and emotional connection to the field and the aim of “axiological neutrality” required by the scientific posture. An object held at a distance or “blindness” in the field? Therefore, we will question the different types and occurrences of ethnocentrism, androcentrism an hegemonic Doxa which very often remain invisible. •Take the measurement, in the objectification work, on the importance of autobiographical determinations, in order to clarify the researcher’s situated point of view (age, sexuality, social class, sex, race, etc.). We will examine in particular the heuristic advantages, which this involvement can contribute to the construction of a scientific object or on the contrary, it may misrepresent the content. •The emotions of the researcher in the field have a crucial impact on the way he or she perceives reality which has been widely neglected by methodological debates. We encourage contributions that reflect on the researcher’s affectivity and its impact on the collection and interpretation of data.

    Ultimately, we invite the presenters to make a reflexive return on their research subject by shifting the focus on the social, cultural, spatiotemporal or even, in connection with biographical transformations (accidents, maternity, mourning, etc.) or structural events (institutional changes, crisis, disaster, etc.).

  • 18_11JS20JS28Emotions, Objectification and Reflexivity in Qualitative Body and Sport Research (2)

    Joint session with RN11 – Sociology of emotions and RN28 – Society and Sports

    Chair: Haifa Tlili <tlilihaifa1@gmail.com>, Paris Descartes University Katarina Jacobsson <Katarina.Jacobsson@soch.lu.se>, Lund University Monica Aceti <monica.aceti@unifr.ch>, University of Strasbourg

    We invite researchers working on subjects that engage the body in situations of various interactions (physical, sports, arts, in professional or leisure situation) to question their practices and their emotional commitment in their field. Three perspectives will be favoured. •Discuss the opportunities, limitations and bias of different versions of participant observation. One of the main issues is to question the researcher’s choice when faced with the challenging dialectic of subjective and emotional connection to the field and the aim of “axiological neutrality” required by the scientific posture. An object held at a distance or “blindness” in the field? Therefore, we will question the different types and occurrences of ethnocentrism, androcentrism an hegemonic Doxa which very often remain invisible. •Take the measurement, in the objectification work, on the importance of autobiographical determinations, in order to clarify the researcher’s situated point of view (age, sexuality, social class, sex, race, etc.). We will examine in particular the heuristic advantages, which this involvement can contribute to the construction of a scientific object or on the contrary, it may misrepresent the content. •The emotions of the researcher in the field have a crucial impact on the way he or she perceives reality which has been widely neglected by methodological debates. We encourage contributions that reflect on the researcher’s affectivity and its impact on the collection and interpretation of data.

    Ultimately, we invite the presenters to make a reflexive return on their research subject by shifting the focus on the social, cultural, spatiotemporal or even, in connection with biographical transformations (accidents, maternity, mourning, etc.) or structural events (institutional changes, crisis, disaster, etc.).

  • 20JS21JS28Doing social research on sports. Methodological and empirical challenges

    Joint session with RN21 – Quantitative Methods and RN28 – Society and Sports

    Chairs: Alessandro Porrovecchio, Ajit Singh & Henning Best

    Within the sociology of sports there is relatively little problematisation of the different methodologies, which are currently available. It seems therefore important to analyze what has been achieved so far and what the future holds: this session is designed to mark out future directions for researchers interested in contesting/reformulating our understandings of knowledge production in the sociology of sport and physical culture. In order to contribute to these streams of research and to open new horizons for further investigation, we invite potential contributors to submit abstracts that elaborate experiences of empirical approaches to research on bodies, sports, and physical cultures, based on qualitative and/or quantitative strategies, as well as mixed methods. We are particularly interested in essays that expose the challenges, the emerging issues and the solutions in combining methodologically innovative approaches and evaluation programs in order to analyze the representations and meanings of practices, identities, bodies, movements, and anatomies.

  • 20JS34Qualitative Research on Religion

    Joint session with RN34 – Sociology of Religion

    Chairs: Regine Herbrik <regine.herbrik@leuphana.de>, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg Bernt Schnettler, <schnettler@uni-bayreuth.de>, University of Bayreuth

    We also encourage participants to present papers concerned with methodological questions related to the specific problems of empirical research in the Study of Religions. Can we transfer methods from other fields of research to the sociology of religion or do we need special, field-specific methods? What can we learn from methods used in neighbouring disciplines? Which sets of methods can be recommended for empirical analyses targeting micro-macro issues in understanding religion? What role does the gender issue play in this? We are especially interested in papers reporting empirical research finding in the sociology of religion using qualitative research methods in combination with methodological reflections.

  • 99_b11JS20JS28Emotions, Objectification and Reflexivity in Qualitative Body and Sport Research – II

    Joint session with RN11 – Sociology of emotions and RN28 – Society and Sports

    Monica Aceti <monica.aceti@unifr.ch>, University of Strasbourg Haifa Tlili <tlilihaifa1@gmail.com>, Paris Descartes University Sven Ismer <Sven.Ismer@fu-berlin.de>, Free University Berlin Katarina Jacobsson <Katarina.Jacobsson@soch.lu.se>, Lund University

    We invite researchers working on subjects that engage the body in situations of various interactions (physical, sports, arts, in professional or leisure situation) to question their practices and their emotional commitment in their field. Three perspectives will be favoured. •Discuss the opportunities, limitations and bias of different versions of participant observation. One of the main issues is to question the researcher’s choice when faced with the challenging dialectic of subjective and emotional connection to the field and the aim of “axiological neutrality” required by the scientific posture. An object held at a distance or “blindness” in the field? Therefore, we will question the different types and occurrences of ethnocentrism, androcentrism an hegemonic Doxa which very often remain invisible. •Take the measurement, in the objectification work, on the importance of autobiographical determinations, in order to clarify the researcher’s situated point of view (age, sexuality, social class, sex, race, etc.). We will examine in particular the heuristic advantages, which this involvement can contribute to the construction of a scientific object or on the contrary, it may misrepresent the content. •The emotions of the researcher in the field have a crucial impact on the way he or she perceives reality which has been widely neglected by methodological debates. We encourage contributions that reflect on the researcher’s affectivity and its impact on the collection and interpretation of data.

    Ultimately, we invite the presenters to make a reflexive return on their research subject by shifting the focus on the social, cultural, spatiotemporal or even, in connection with biographical transformations (accidents, maternity, mourning, etc.) or structural events (institutional changes, crisis, disaster, etc.).


Thank you very much to all participants for making esa torino an outstanding conference.