grammatical constraints and motivations for - University of the ...

Cape Town were reserved for occupancy by those who were classified as White
(McCormick 2002). The area rapidly became a slum and, to date, the majority of
the communities of the Cape Flats are poverty-stricken, with social problems such
as gangsterism, drug abuse, and high unemployment rates.
4.2 Methodology
A qualitative method of analysis was adopted for this study. To draw a distinction
between the two, Flick (1992: 6) emphasizes the following:
Unlike quantitative research, qualitative methods take the researcher’s
communication with the field and its members as an explicit part of knowledge
production in stead of excluding it … (and) … the subjectivities of the researcher
and of those being studied are part of the research process. Researchers’
reflections on their actions and observations on the field, their impressions,
irritations, feelings and so on, become data in their own right …
Qualitative methods are useful in that they provide detail and room for descriptive
analysis, rather than mere statistics. Such methods are useful in providing
answers to questions relating to the nature and purpose of specific phenomena
(Leedy, 1997). Cresswell (1994) (cited in Leedy, 1997: 2) defines qualitative
research as an “inquiry process of understanding a social or human problem,
based on building a complex, holistic picture, formed with words, reporting
detailed views of informants and conducted in a natural setting.”
Leedy (1997) argues that qualitative studies have unique purposes, processes and
methods of data collection and analysis. These criteria differentiate qualitative
studies from quantitative ones.
In terms of purpose, Glesne and Peshkin (1992) (cited in Leedy, 1997) argue that
one of the major goals of qualitative studies is to identify the ways in which
participants construct the world around them within a particular social context.
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