Complexity theory and the qualitative research programme

This chapter begins by discussing how complexity understanding of what scientific knowledge is, and can do, can be set in relation to the qualitative programme of work. This has real strengths in developing our understanding of the social world but works in a different and far superior way to positivist approaches. We make no apology for this insistence on the significance of epistemological understanding. We do not dismiss quantitative work at all but rather have turned to the qualitative first as a deliberate assertion of its significance. We review the methods/methodology debate around the qualitative programme and conclude the section with a firm agreement with Maxwell’s (2012) turn to realism, which for us is wholly compatible with the complex realist frame. Then we examine programmes of doing qualitative research. We look first at grounded theory as a method of data collection and analysis as developing an approach to theory building at local level that involves connecting data and developing causal accounts. Next, we examine the intertwined approaches of case studies and narrative methods. Case studies situate the case with whole systems frameworks, rejecting straightforward abstraction to study interaction and emergence from interaction. Narrative inquiry, with its focus on evolution in time and space, seeks to outline dimensions of story, continuity, and breaks in constructing social worlds. Finally, we show how the more recent appreciation of participation brings forth a further shift consistent with a complex realist frame in its focus on the deep nature of participation in knowledge creation as well as the implications of that relationship for praxis.

Epistemology · Sociology · Complex Systems and Decision Making · Computer Science · Philosophy · Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research