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Research conducted by social scientists differ in many respects, but the most common distinction made is between "quantitative" and "qualitative" approaches. Procedures that fall under the heading of qualitative include participant observation, semi-structured interviews and document analysis. But the differences between "quantitative" and "qualitative" research involves more than procedure. Qualitative research is a method--a particular approach to the empirical world with its own assumptions, techniques and modes of analysis. This course introduces the qualitative tradition and provides the first steps in learning to conduct research of this type.
It was not until the early 1970's that the phrase qualitative research came into wide use to refer to the research approach that will be discussed in the course. Prior to that, these methods were mainly lodged in the disciplines of anthropology and sociology and referred to by such terms as fieldwork, participant observation and ethnography. Having said that, research in human/cultural geography has changed significantly over the last two decades. If you look quickly over some of our leading journals (The Annals of the Association of American Geographers; Society and Space; Professional Geographer) we see a large percentage of empirical studies which are derived from what is generally know as qualitative methods.