Plenary Abstracts

1. The comparative method and computer-aided qualitative research
Udo Kelle, Institute of Sociology, Philipps University of Marburg, Germany

2. Honouring the past, scoping the future*
Ray Lee and Nigel Fielding, Directors of the CAQDAS Networking Project

3. Towards a Digital Visual Ethnography
Sarah Pink, Reader in Social Anthropology, Loughborough University

4. Comparative keyword analysis: a computer-assisted method for the qualitative analysis of text
Clive Seale, Department of Sociology & Communications, Brunel University, London

5. Beyond the Input Data Blob
Alan Stockdale, Center for Applied Ethics and Professional Practice, Newton, USA

The comparative method and computer-aided qualitative research
Udo Kelle, Institute of Sociology, Philipps University of Marburg, Germany

In this paper it will be argued that the most crucial methodological innovation provided by CAQDAS in the past 15 years is that it offers technical tools for the application of comparative methods. Furthermore it will be shown that the intelligent application of formal strategies of comparison included in CAQDAS packages may deepen our understanding of methodological hazards entailed in comparative analysis.

Therefore it is extremely helpful to draw on classical concepts of comparison, esp. on Mill´s methods of agreement and difference. In the paper earlier discussions about the use (and the misuse) of these methods in the works of Chicago School sociologists will be described and it will be shown that Mill´s methods also play a prominent role for Grounded theory methodology, although their application in qualitative analysis is almost never explicitly discussed in this context. The invention of CAQDAS did not only facilitate the use of comparative methods through ordinary code-and-retrieve techniques. CAQDAS also inspired the development of formal methods of comparison, for instance procedures for computer-aided hypothesis testing included in several packages and techniques which support the employment of “Qualitative Comparative Analysis” proposed by Charles Ragin.

Such formal strategies of case comparison can be used to demonstrate how two basic logical problems of comparative analysis – the problem of unknown background conditions and the problem of incomplete case selection – can exert disastrous effects on the interpretation of qualitative data.