Analysis and Interpretation of Ethnographic Data: a Mixed Methods Approach

Treating analysis as both a mechanical and a cognitive process, Book 5 begins by describing why analysis and interpretation of data are necessary. In the first two chapters the book points out the importance of beginning ethnographic analysis in the field, during the earliest stages of data collection, and how to move between induction and and increasingly refined conceptual model. The middle section tackles thechallenge of transforming huge piles of text, audio, and visual information...
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Treating analysis as both a mechanical and a cognitive process, Book 5 begins by describing why analysis and interpretation of data are necessary. In the first two chapters the book points out the importance of beginning ethnographic analysis in the field, during the earliest stages of data collection, and how to move between induction and and increasingly refined conceptual model. The middle section tackles thechallenge of transforming huge piles of text, audio, and visual information intoan ethnographic whole through generic and specific coding and quantificationof qualitative data, using multiple extended examples. Chapters show how touse computers in analysis of qualitative data and ways to integrate the resultsof quantitative and qualitative data into a comprehensive picture of a complexwhole. Chapter 9 presents a rare and comprehensive description of the statisticsregularly used by ethnographers to analyze ethnographic surveys. Chapters 10and 11 show how researchers create and then fine-tune preliminary results intoan integrated whole, display them for multiple audiences, and write them up. Thefinal chapter illustrates how ethnographers can share the meaning of results withlocal communities and constituents and with other professional researchers.