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Qualitative_data_analysis

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Figure 10.9 Shifting the analytic emphasis<br />

In splicing categories, we clarified relationships between categories, but we have<br />

not reduced the overall number of strands in our <strong>analysis</strong>. This might seem<br />

retrograde—surely in splicing categories, we want to reduce the number of separate<br />

strands? Yes, indeed. But splicing is not just a question of bringing categories<br />

together. We also have to consider the relevance and boundaries of the categories<br />

themselves. We must first identify clearly the separate strands, if we hope to weave<br />

them together effectively in our <strong>analysis</strong>.<br />

A cynic might comment that we could have avoided all this trouble by thinking<br />

more clearly in the first place. But if we could think clearly enough in the first place,<br />

we wouldn’t need to retrieve and analyse our <strong>data</strong>bits at all. By categorizing the<br />

<strong>data</strong>, we provide an empirical testing ground for our conceptualizations. By<br />

comparing the <strong>data</strong>bits within and between categories, we can clarify the boundaries<br />

and relationships between our concepts.<br />

Issues in splicing categories<br />

• How central are the categories analytically?<br />

• How are they distinguished conceptually?<br />

• How do they interrelate?<br />

• Are they inclusive or exclusive?<br />

• Are they of the same status or super/subordinate?<br />

• What steps in <strong>analysis</strong> led to their emergence?<br />

• How have category definitions evolved?<br />

SPLITTING AND SPLICING 159

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