Ethnographic Research and the Problem of Data Reduction¹

Abstract

Choices o f strategies for analyzing records or transcripts o f human behavior in everyday, naturalistic settings are affected by a variety of externalandinternal design constraints. Among the most common techniques identified are analytic induction, the constant comparative method, typological analysis, enumerative systems, a n d standardized observational protocols. Each of these is described and analyzed along multiple dimensions o f design considerations.

Mobility, accessibility and quality of later life

“…Mobility, Accessibility (Glaser, 2001;Goetz and LeCompte, 1981;Janesick, 1994;Lincoln and Gruba, 1985). In line with grounded theory open, axial and structured coding were used on the data.…”

Crisis Response Information Networks

“…Therefore, we used analytic induction (Taylor & Bogdan, 1998) to uncover new constructs and relationships that could enrich our understanding of the phenomenon and assist our theory building process (Patton, 2002). Analytical induction involved the following steps (Goetz & LeCompte, 1981): (1) defining phenomenon in a tentative manner, (2) scanning data to identify categories, (3) developing typologies, (4) determining the relationships that exist among categories, and (5) continually refining categories until all are accounted for. Table 2 below summarizes the analytic induction procedures adopted in this study.…”

Inclusive Masculinity in a Fraternal Setting

“…These in-depth, loosely structured, one-to two-hour interviews were transcribed verbatim by research assistants. They were then coded for content, and emerging themes were organized into conceptual and thematic categories (Goetz and LeCompte 1981;Strauss and Corbin 1994). To improve reliability, researcher triangulation was used on 10 percent of the transcription coding, and a key informant checked several drafts of the paper.…”