Abstract:

The author argues the value of the qualitative mode can be particularly well harnessed if not restricted to the qualitative method. It can by definition add insight to almost any piece of information, including numbers. There is no reason why the qualitative mode cannot be expanded to encompass all forms of evidence. Many will argue 'yes, but that's what we already do - kind of'. In some cases that may be true.The point is the qualitative mode has only been sporadically articulated as a skill set in its own right separate from the business of collecting data - the qualitative method. Articulation concentrates the mind. The challenge to so-called 'quantitative researchers' is to bring the same level of left-field ambiguity and insight to the numbers that equally so-called 'qualitative specialists' routinely deliver based on fewer but deeper observations.The challenge to our qualitative audience is to take the qualitative mode of thinking out of its comfy meet-the-people methodological box, and carry the flag for a somewhat bigger revolution. All of what has gone before is, of course, only an opinion - just like 99% of what we do.