Qualitative_data_analysis

Chapter 11
Linking data
Categorizing the data allows us to compare observations in terms of relations of
similarity and difference. Of any two observations, X and Y, we can ask if they are
similar or different. How are they the same, or how do they differ? This is powerful
stuff; categories are the conceptual building blocks from which we can construct our
theoretical edifices. But they also have limitations. In breaking up the data, we lose
information about relationships between different parts of the data. We lose our
sense of process—of how things interact or ‘hang together’. To capture this
information, we need to link data as well as categorize it.
To recall a distinction made earlier, linking data involves recognizing substantive
rather than formal relations between things. Formal relations are concerned with
how things relate in terms of similarity and difference—how far they do or do not
share the same characteristics. Substantive relations are concerned with how things
interact. Things which are connected through interaction need not be similar, and
vice versa (Sayer 1992:88). For example, in formal terms we can distinguish
‘dentists’ and ‘patients’ as two distinct categories, based on differences between these
social roles. However, there is a substantive connection between these two roles,
despite the formal differences between them. Dentists have skills and patients need
treatment. Indeed, one cannot be a dentist without a patient, or a patient without a
dentist. To understand these social roles, we have to recognize the substantive
relation that exists between them.
Sayer (1992:88–89) distinguishes between relations which are ‘internal’ or
‘necessary’ and relations which are ‘external’ or ‘contingent’. The relation between
dentist and patient is internal or necessary in the sense that one social role
necessarily presupposes the other. An external or contingent relation is one which may
exist but need not do so. For example, dentists need to make a living, but how this
is financed and whether or not the patient pays for treatment at the point of service
is a contingent relation between the two. A dentist cannot practise without a
patient, but a dentist can practise without receiving direct payment from the patient.
Where the patient has to pay at the point of service, this establishes a substantive
but contingent connection between patient and dentist. Clearly, contingent