Qualitative_data_analysis

Chapter 2
What is qualitative data?
Compare the following reports of a game of soccer (Winter 1991).
Wimbledon 0 Liverpool 0 There was more excitement in the Selhurst car park
than on the pitch…
Here we have both a quantitative result, and a qualitative assessment of the same
game. Which do we care more about—the result, or the game? The points, or the
passion? Which we find more important or illuminating will depend on what we are
interested in. If we are team managers or fanatical fans, we may care more about the
result than about how it was achieved. If we are neutral spectators, then we may care
more about the quality of the game than about the result—in which case the match
report confirms our worst fears of a no scoring draw! In social research as in
everyday life, our assessment of quantitative and qualitative data is likely to reflect
the interests we bring to it and the use we want to make of it.
We use quantitative data in a whole range of everyday activities, such as shopping,
cooking, travelling, watching the time or assessing the Government’s economic
performance. How long? How often? How much? How many? We often ask and
answer questions such as these using quantitative data.
Suppose I take 30 minutes to jog 5 miles to a shop and spend £5 on a litre of
Chilean wine and 100 grams of Kenyan green beans. My behaviour may seem
somewhat eccentric, but the terms in which it is expressed—minutes, miles,
pounds, litres and grams—are entirely familiar. Each of these is a unit of
measurement, in terms of which we can measure quantity. How do we measure
quantities? We can count the coins or notes. We use a watch to tell the time. We
weigh the beans on a weighing machine. We can use a milometer to check on
distance and a measuring jug for volume. In each case, we have a measuring device
which can express variations in quantity in terms of an established scale of standard
units. But what is it that varies? We use minutes to measure time, miles to measure