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30.1 - Qualitative Social Research

Special Issue
HSR Vol. 30 (2005) No. 1: Special Issue: Special Issue: Qualitative Social Research

Günterr Mey & Katja Mruck (Eds.): Qualitative Social Research – Methodological Reflections and Disciplinary Applications: Selected Contributions from the Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research

After decades of “Methodenstreit” and academic marginalization in various disciplines, qualitative research has become an important approach in reconstructing mental, social and cultural realities. The transdisciplinary and multilingual online journal Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research (FQS) has been an active part of this development by publishing 17 issues with more than 600 articles to date. This HSR Special Issue contains selected contributions published from 2000-2005. It covers methodological reflections on some key issues of qualitative research, for example concerning the relationship between qualitative and quantitative research, on the challenges secondary analyses, or on the importance of subjectivity in the cognitive process. At the same time, the variety of disciplines involved here demonstrates the enormous range of research fields and methodological approaches. Furthermore, this HSR Special Issue stands for the successful co-operation between FQS and HSR in the last years, thereby aiming to leave the “Methodenstreit” behind.