1. M ETHODOLOGY IN P OLITICAL S CIENCE : Q UALITATIVE R ESEARCH M ETHODS November 5, 2014 By Hung-jen Wang 王宏仁

2. T ODAY ’ S O UTLINE I. Interviewing and Sampling II. Participant Observation

3. I. I NTERVIEWING AND S AMPLING

4. T ECHNIQUES FOR S EMISTRUCTURED I NTERVIEWS (1) Gaining Rapport : Putting respondents at ease Are you listening? Question order “Presuming” questions

5. T ECHNIQUES FOR S EMISTRUCTURED I NTERVIEWS (2) Types of questions: Grand tour questions (including specific grand tour, guided grand tour, and task- related grand tour ) Example questions (including native language questions, hypothetical interaction questions, and structural questions ) Prompts (including planned prompts, informal prompts, and floating prompts ) Enough is enough

6. “We’ve been talking about your advocacy efforts on this issue and you have mentioned that you sent a letter to members on the committee, visited with members of the congressional delegation from your district, and put information on your website. Now I want to ask you a slightly different kind of question. I’m interested in getting a list of all the different types of advocacy activities your organization has undertaken in relation to this issue. This might take a little time, but I’d like to know all the different types and what you would call them. ”

7. S AMPLING Your sample Population Representation

8. Elite interview and sampling Two sampling errors: (1) random error ; (2) nonrandom error

9. II. P ARTICIPANT O BSERVATION

10. U SES OF P ARTICIPANT O BSERVATION The methodology of participant observation is good for studying processes, relations among people and events, the organization of people and events, continuities over time, patterns, and the socio-cultural contexts.

11. Participant observation is appropriate for scholarly problems when: Little is known about the phenomenon; There are important differences between the views of insiders as opposed to outsiders; The phenomenon is somehow obscured from the view of outsiders; The phenomenon is hidden from public view

12. However, participant observation method is not appropriate for questions about fairly large populations, the precise causal relationships among limited sets of variables, and measurable amounts of something are better addressed by surveys or experiments.

13. Participant observation is most appropriate when certain conditions are present: The problem is concerned with human meanings and interactions; The phenomenon of investigation is observable within an everyday life situation; The researcher is able to gain access to an appropriate setting; The phenomenon is sufficiently limited in size; Study questions are appropriate for case study; and The research problem can be addressed by qualitative data gathered by direct observation.

14. F EATURES OF P ARTICIPANT O BSERVATION Participant observation is defined in terms of seven features: 1) A special interest in human meaning and interaction as viewed from the perspective of people who are insiders, or members of particular situation; 2) Location in the here and now of everyday life situations and settings as the foundation of inquiry and method; 3) A form of theory and theorizing interpretation of human existence; 4) A logic and process of inquiry that is open-ended ; 5) An in-depth, qualitative, case study approach and design; 6) The performance of a participant role that involves establishing relationships with natives in the field; 7) The use of direct observation along with other methods of gathering information.

15. 1) T HE I NSIDERS ’ V IEWPOINT People make sense of the world around them; they give it meaning and they interact on the basis of these meanings. Culture and language. To uncover and reveal the meanings (realities) people use to make sense out of their daily lives.

16. 2)T HE W ORLD OF E VERYDAY L IFE The ordinary, usual, typical, routine, or natural environment of human existence. Everyday life is important because (1) that is where the researcher begins with the process of defining and refining issues and problems for study; (2) they are where the researcher participates.

17. 3) I NTERPRETATIVE T HEORY AND T HEORIZING The methodology of participant observation provokes concepts and generalizations formulated as interpretative theories.

18. 4) A N O PEN -E NDED L OGIC AND P ROCESS OF I NQUIRY “A logic of discovery”. The process and logic of inquiry should be constantly open to its redefinition.

19. 5) I N - DEPTH C ASE S TUDIES Methodology of participant observation is generally practiced as a form of case study. To describe comprehensively and exhaustively a phenomenon in terms of a research problem (or, often is the study of a single case )

20. 6) T HE P ARTICIPANT R OLE “sympathetic introspection” or “sympathetic reconstruction”; From the performance of nominal and marginal roles to the performance of native, insider, or membership roles; To perform multiple roles and to gain rapport with the people; To sustain access and to maintain relationships with people.

21. 7) M ETHODS OF C OLLECTING I NFORMATION Direct observation Documents (newspapers, letters, diaries, memoranda); Other forms of communication (audio recordings, photography, videotapes, radio, television), and artifacts (art, tools, clothing, buildings); Casual conversations, in-depth, informal, and unstructured/structured interviews; A team strategy; To record the results (to write a diary/blog, or tape- record/computer files etc).