A Case for Nonanthropological Qualitative Methods for Demographers

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4120499
AutoresJohn Knodel (autor de correspondencia)
Año1997
Volumen23
Número4
Páginas847
Fecha de publicación1997-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaPopulation and Development Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0098-7921 • E-ISSN: 1728-4457
EditorialJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2137386
OpenAlexW2325455595
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas22
Referencias citadas4

THERE IS A widespread impression that anthropology should be particularly privileged as a field to guide efforts at qualitative research on demographic behavior. This, however, is not a view I share. Qualitative methods have been developed and extensively used in numerous social science disciplines, by no means the least sociology, my home discipline. While work in anthropology and ethnography has influenced the development of some of these methods, and perhaps conversely, qualitative methods in other social science fields are not simply derivative of those characterizing anthropological or ethnographic research, nor are they necessarily used for the same purposes. I believe that most demographers interested in incorporating qualitative data and analysis in their research will find, as I have, that for many of our purposes the most practical and useful qualitative methods come from outside anthropology. I suspect the close and almost exclusive identification of anthropological and qualitative methods in demography that prevails in at least some circles has much to do with the decision by the IUSSP a decade or so ago to establish the Committee on Anthropological Demography (as opposed to a committee on qualitative demographic research), and with the Mellon Foundation's grants to major university population centers that were intended to foster closer links between anthropology and demography (Kertzer and Fricke 1997). Related to these initiatives, emphasis has been given to anthropological demography when conferences and seminars were organized to promote qualitative methods in our field. To be sure, these efforts have fostered important research on demographic phenomena using anthropological and ethnographic approaches, some of which was conducted by the participants in this symposium. And such work is likely to continue to be an important line of research in qualitative demography. Nevertheless, in my view, it is preferable to advocate a more inclusive promotion of qualitative methods in population studies than one that mainly

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