Read this great post on 'What do Art and Qualitative Research have in common?' on Reshma's blog!Once again I realised/ felt the following:
1. I haven't read a good quali research report in months...(Maybe this one's just a case of bad company:-)
2. Many of the clients that I worked with in the recent past have had little understanding/ respect/ empathy/ belief in/for quali research!
3. Many of my colleagues/ even planners still think that 'quali is a bit unscientific'.
4. The general level of discomfort with anything that cannot be quantified...
5. The belief system that only quant has rigour and a sense of conclusiveness!
6. Our stubbornness/ stupidity to keep on trying to understand the world around us solely with numbers, ignoring the quali clues & codes that we receive everyday...
7. Practically zero training to budding planners in this area in most agencies...
8. The 'quant-devotees' among the senior management in an agency far out-number the 'qual-followers'(purely my guess)
In our business that's so much of an intuitive art...this is a gaping void that must be filled up...
Anybody has interesting quali reports, thot-pieces, academic papers, web-site links to share...
4 comments:
Pt no. 8 is so true (purely from my experience) and a big impediment in the way of quali studies.
ive seen some good qualit study in this place (done by the likes of Q research and RI) but i cant share them with you (as of now).
i will wait...:-)
Hi Manish,
Nice and interesting post especially as i'd like to become a planner! Your bullet points clearly show that some planners don't understand the purpose of qual vs. quant research.
As a quallie, I like to ask questions ;) - in your opinion what makes a good qual report?
hey thanks laurence...
as i said in the post, its been some time since i laid hands on a really good qual report...
i wud expect the following
1. please do not state the obvious..save trees. be short and succinct. just because the frequency of research keeps increasing doesnt mean that people have sth new to say everytime we grill them!
2. i have seen many indian qual researchers quote the people directly...without caring about the context, the tonality or the body language...these are oft ignored cues...
3. Qual research is more about interpretations...I wud expect a lot more reading between the lines!
4. the report must validate some hypostheses...quite often the qual report is totally direction-less...and therefore of little use for the client or agency.
5. we must use new media, new methods to do the research...
I find that close friends/ friends and acquaintances often give more nuanced information than complete strangers...
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