A tale of two societies

The doing of qualitative comparative research in Hong Kong and Britain

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4823769
AutoresStevi Jackson (University of York), Petula Sik Ying Ho (University of Hong Kong, autor de correspondencia), Jin Nye
Año2017
Volumen10
Número2
Fecha de publicación2017-07-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaMethodological Innovations (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2059-7991 • E-ISSN: 2059-7991
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/2059799117703117
OpenAlexW2742433784
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas19

This article explores the challenges and opportunities for methodological innovation arising from an exploratory, cross-national, qualitative study of women's lives in Hong Kong and Britain. We begin by briefly outlining the aims of our study and its original research design, based on life history interviews with young adult women and their mothers in each location. We then turn to a discussion of how this was modified as we recruited participants and conducted the interviews, including the use of vignettes. We aim to be transparent about some of the problems of implementing a symmetrical approach to generating qualitative data in very different socio-cultural settings compounded by the practical difficulties of geographical distance between team members. We argue for a flexible approach that takes account of local cultural sensibilities rather than trying to follow rigidly identical procedures, recognising also that, in any qualitative research team, there will be differences in approach that affect the data produced. We highlight some of the insights yielded by the problems we encountered and, in particular, an accidental innovation that occurred through an ad hoc decision to conduct focus groups with the young women, which we call 'cross-cultural data feedback'. This innovation involved our participants in contributing to cross-cultural comparison and also brought taken-for-granted assumptions in each setting into sharp relief, as well as sensitising us to issues that proved important in analysing our data. This leads us to raise issues of interpreting and analysing data from differing socio-cultural locations and translating between cultures. We conclude with some recommendations including the potential for the future development of our method of cross-cultural data feedback

Accidental · Affect (linguistics · Exploratory research · Focus group · Political science · Public relations · Qualitative property · Qualitative research · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Computer Science · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Psychology · Rural development and sustainability · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics