Qualitative_data_analysis

172 QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS
Figure 11.10 Explaining Mrs Sol Schwimmer’s litigation
determining whether and how to link data. On the other hand, we may be especially
interested in ambiguity of meaning, and how one statement can link to other parts
of the text. In that case, we may take inclusion of all potential meanings as a guide
to our linking.
In any case, sometimes we may want to adopt an interpretation deliberately at
odds with that of our subjects. To digress for a moment, let us look at how the
episode with Mrs Sol Schwimmer could be analysed in terms of explanatory links,
but looking at possible explanations in the data for her litigation. Although Vincent
is apparently exasperated at her action, and finds it absurd, we can identify a
number of reasons in Vincent’s account why Mrs Schwimmer might resort to
litigation. To do so, we must opt for inclusion rather than proximity as our rule for
linking databits. For convenience I have presented these links graphically
(Figure 11.10).
Exactly how the results of linking are recorded and displayed by the computer
will depend on the software being used.
This analysis is governed by two decisions. First, our decision to characterize the
links as explanatory rather than causal. Second, our decision to adopt an ‘inclusion’
rule, permitting a link to be inferred even if not referred to explicitly in the data,
and regardless of whether or not the databits are sequential. Obviously different
decisions could produce a very different analysis. It is therefore important to record