Qualitative_data_analysis

Table 11.2 Multiple links between databits
Table 11.3 Linking non-sequential databits
LINKING DATA 171
Because Vincent precedes his account of Cézanne with another outburst —‘Theo
I can’t go on like this much longer’—we can be more confident in linking this
episode to his opening confession. Sometimes, however, it is not at all obvious how
to link data, even where the databits we want to link are in sequence. Take the
statement ‘I can’t go on’ in the middle of Vincent’s letter, as an example. Does this
statement conclude the previous account of bridge building, open the new one on
Cézanne, or both? Or take Vincent’s concluding statement ‘What to do?’ Does this
refer to Cézanne’s incompetence, to his own legal problems, to his despair, or to a
culmination of all three? The fact that links may bridge separate parts of the data
makes matters more complicated rather than less.
As with assigning categories, we may want to spell out as far as possible the
criteria we use in making a decision between these options, so that this can guide us
over future judgements. For example, we may decide to restrict a link to the
preceding data, unless there are empirical grounds for linking it to other databits. We
may have more confidence that Vincent is referring to Cézanne’s incompetence,
which he has just been discussing, than to the bridge-building episode. If we use
proximity as a guide, then we should include this in the criteria we use in