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Chapter 2 - A Philosophical Perspective on Qualitative Research in the Age of Digitalization

from Part I - Philosophical, Epistemological and Theoretical Considerations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2023

By
Allen S. Lee  and
Suprateek Sarker
Edited by
Boyka Simeonova  and
Robert D. Galliers
Boyka Simeonova
Affiliation:
University of Leicester
Robert D. Galliers
Affiliation:
Bentley University, Massachusetts and Warwick Business School
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Summary

The digitalization of business organizations and of society in general has opened up the possibility of researching behaviours using large volumes of digital traces and electronic texts that capture behaviours and attitudes in a broad range of natural settings. How is the availability of such data changing the nature of qualitative, specifically interpretive, research and are computational approaches becoming the essence of such research? This chapter briefly examines this issue by considering the potential impacts of digital data on key themes associated with research, those of induction, deduction and meaning. It highlights some of the ‘nascent myths’ associated with the digitalization of qualitative research. The chapter concludes that while the changes in the nature of data present exciting opportunities for qualitative, interpretive researchers to engage with computational approaches in the form of mixed-methods studies, it is not believed they will become the sine qua non of qualitative information systems research in the foreseeable future.

Keywords

big dataqualitative researchinterpretive researchphilosophyinductiondeductionmeaninggrounded theoryhermeneuticscomputational approachesmixed-methods
Type
Chapter
Information
Cambridge Handbook of Qualitative Digital Research , pp. 15 - 27
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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