Qualitative_data_analysis

substantive connections between categories which are ‘contingent’ i.e. not true by
definition, then we should be concerned to make an empirical (and numerical)
assessment of our evidence. If we want to claim that transpositions of temperament
result in infliction of suffering on patients, we want to know whether and how far
the evidence supports this connection.
Of course, within the context of qualitative analysis, an enumeration of this kind
is not the whole story by a long shot. The cells in a qualitative evaluation are never
mere numbers. The numbers summarize our category decisions, and express
information about databits in aggregate form. Associations between categories are
suggestive not conclusive evidence of connections between categories. For one
thing, the existence of an association is not sufficient evidence that such a
connection exists. We need to look beyond the evidence of association, to a
qualitative account of how and why the categories may be connected. Moreover, the
existence of a regular association may be misleading. There are many occasions
where we identify connections between events regardless of regularities (Sayer 1992:
131). For example, as I write these lines (in March 1992), the poor performance of
the Conservative Party in the current election campaign is widely attributed to the
‘grey’ personality of the incumbent Prime Minister. In everyday life, we identify
connections through analysing the capabilities and liabilities of actors, not merely
nor perhaps even primarily through some regular association between events. The
existence of such regularities is not irrelevant, but it is indirect and inconclusive
evidence of connections between categories. For direct evidence of whether or not a
connection exists between categories, therefore, we must still look closely at the data
on which the numbers are based.
CONNECTING WITH LINKED DATA
MAKING CONNECTIONS 189
One reason qualitative analysts have relied—rather surreptitiously, perhaps —
#8212;on quasi-quantitative assessments may be the lack of more direct methods of
identifying connections between categories. By allowing us to make hyperlinks
between different bits of data, the computer has now opened up new and more
direct ways of connecting categories. Let us look at how we can use linked data to
connect categories more effectively. As we are considering the most recent
innovations in computer applications for qualitative analysis, it may be some time
before software supporting these procedures becomes widely available.
First let us recall that linking data has a mechanical and conceptual aspect. The
mechanical aspect refers to hyperlinks created between different databits. The
conceptual aspect refers to the identification of the nature of the link between the
databits—e.g. is it causal, explanatory or whatever. Linking allows us to treat our
databits as individual points in a complex web of relationships, rather than as