We think this needs to be repeated over and over again… Basically, qualitative methods are used to discover things and quantitative methods are used to measure that which is already known. Quantitative data refers to variable data, i.e. data which should conclude with quantities of some kind. Investigations of the quantitative kind aim at producing empirical proof to be able to explain the studied phenomenon in an objective way. This is an outsider or observer perspective. Qualitative data, on the other hand, try to understand a reality and mirror it as precisely as possible. This is an insider or participant perspective.
Discover or measure already known?!
New office!
On monday we move into our new office at Sofiagatan 5, Södermalm, Stockholm. We will sit togehther with Small World. A fantastic place, both surroundings and the office. Welcome to visit us!
Don’t touch my cow
Tomorrow we will present the results from the ethnographic project about ecology and sustainability at Skånes Livsmedelsakademi. After spending a lot of time together with consumers in their homes and when they buy food we can state that the word “ecology” is more blurring than ever for them. Instead consumers find other concepts that is more concrete and easier to believe in, for example locally produced.
Cutting-edges of ethnography
This weekend we will attend an interesting workshop in Lund initiated by Professor Orvar Löfgren called Irregular Ethnographies. The theme for the workshop is to discuss experiments with new approaches and persepctives on ethnography. What do we learn from taking ethnography into new fields?
Ethnographic study about Idol
This week our study about the tv programme Idol will be available for everyone who is interested. Just click on this link to Medierådet and order your copy. The report tell you all about the methods used and all insights found!
Volvo Subject60 experiment
This report and film is the result of our ethnographic observational study of the Volvo Subject60 tour in Berlin, London, Milan, Paris and Madrid. At each event experiments were weaved into the party environment to trigger the participant’s naughty behavior. An anthropologist was engaged at each event to execute observations with focus on behavior, facial expressions, party mood and reactions to the ‘hidden’ experiments.
The world’s most modern country
This summer SVT is once again sending the TV programme Världens modernaste land, a series that discuss different issues about Swedish culture. A relief for all of us that get quite tired of football… In programme number 4 Katarina Graffman is guest together with Peter Englund. View here.
A different kind of media behavior
Media, especially for young users, is about a complete integration with everyday life, which constantly is ongoing. It is no longer about the “new” in media technologies that should be problematizied in order to understand the use and impact – it’s about to see media as a cultural expression that mediates social relations. Only then one can also understand how media works and how it affects everyday life. This is what “old” media logic has difficult to relate to. Today they still use rigid metrics that fail to measure a total integrated behavior.
Ethnography and trendspotting
By using ethnography one can identify key patterns in the users´ emotinal, functional and social needs. That is what real “trendspotting” is – detailed analysis of behaviour in order to predict change. One have to know that human behavior is likely to lead to some development, such as the human need for comfort is often a stronger driving force rather than attitude and lifestyle.
Hattrick and Why do ethnography
For widening the understanding of their own online service, especially how it is perceived by their users, the owners of the text-based football manager game Hattrick and their associates at Tribaling recently called for ethnographic research as one step in the process of making a marketing strategy plan. The research found answers to questions that were not previously thought of and showed new insights into both functional and social values of the game. Thus, the research revealed Hattrick to be more than a strategy game: the inherently versatile online service is shown to be not only a resource for entertainment, personal challenge and a social community but also a unique cultural environment in which users over time familiarize with, find meaningful to engage in and even extend outwardly into everyday life.