Qualitative Methods

Within the field of sociology, qualitative methods tend to refer to ethnography, interviewing, and historical sociology. Whereas ethnography and interviewing tend to rely on actors of the present moment, historical sociology mainly focuses on past events using written records contained in archives. These three areas of research sometimes overlap, but on the whole they form distinct traditions and have different pivotal agendas. Historical sociologists tend to evaluate work on the basis of its success in making causal explanations on the basis of systematic comparisons. On the other hand, ethnographers and interviewers find that while the subjectivities they gain access to may help them to make valid causal claims, such claims are not the great strength of these methodologies and usually form the weakest parts of otherwise useful qualitative studies. Qualitative modes of inquiry emerged in dialog with more quantitative methods as the discipline of sociology made a transformation from being an almost completely theoretical field.