The Qualitative Methods Toolbox

Description

Despite the mostly quantitative orientation of mainstream political science, qualitative research involving some form of fieldwork has a long tradition in our discipline too: qualitative interviewing (Mosley 2013) in particular is often used either as a stand-alone method or as complementary method (in policy analysis for instance). Interviewing has a limitation though: it assumes that people can always explain what they do and why they are doing it, and that they are willing to do so in the artificial setting of a one-off conversation with a stranger. As every ethnographer can tell us though – and as we commonsensically know from everyday life – this is not always the case: people may not be able to produce articulated explanations "out of the blue"; may find it hard to relate to topics on a purely verbal level (especially if these topics relate to routinized social practices), may not be willing to talk about (taboo) topics, may have a hostile attitude towards researchers, or may simply not be able to articulate their thoughts fully (think children or people with PTSD or disabilities). This workshop encourages researchers to think creatively beyond structured interviewing, to broaden their qualitative methods toolbox with approaches borrowed from a variety of fields: political ethnography, participatory research, therapy and social work, or arts-based research for example. By the end of the workshop, participants will have an understanding of why we should routinely think outside the box of interviewing (even if this is and will remain our primary method) and how to do so. Access the full workshop outline here: https://www.kindinstitute.net/workshop-outlines/sgier-june-2026