Uwe Flick
Sage Publications, London
ISBN 0761955887 (paper)
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Qualitative Research is that huge field between hard science and the serious social novel. It serves as a means of understanding why and how people behave as they do. Methods such as statistical sampling may be borrowed from traditional quantitative science; while techniques such as transcribing dialogue and writing narratives may be not far from literature, as in the fine anthropological writings of past masters like Evans-Pritchard, for instance. But the intention in the field is different from that of either neighbour.
Classification of data, systematic collection, and explicit theorizing all indicate that this is a research discipline. On the other hand, the involvement of the researcher, the writing of realist, confessional, or even impressionist tales "written in the form of dramatic recall" can allow the audience "to see, hear, and feel [almost] as the fieldworker saw, heard, and felt". Plainly this is a research domain with its own set of rules.
Qualitative Research thus involves human skill in the description - which can never be perfect, precise, or complete - of human interactions, situations, relations, meanings, and goals. Needless to say, there is a multiplicity of techniques and approaches embodying widely different philosophies.
Flick's book is itself a remarkable piece of research. It has an enormous bibliography, and a matching text which covers, section by section, the theories, methods, and approaches. These are classified by likeness and distinguished by their most conspicuous fieldmarks and essential principles.
Each method is described in stages, with its basic phases and activities, the problems in conducting the method, examples, contribution to the wider picture, how it fits into the research process, and its limitations all itemised.
For example, participant observation is a method in which (Flick quotes Denzin)
the researcher dives headlong into the field, observes from a member's perspective but also influences what is observed owing to his or her participation.
Flick then summarises seven features of participant observation from another researcher, Jorgensen, including the performance of a participant role or roles that involves establishing and maintaining relationships with natives in the field; and the use of direct observation along with other methods of gathering information.
Over a page is then dedicated to explaining the phases of the method. Flick goes to further sources, starting with Spradley who identified three phases (back in 1980), namely descriptive observation, focused observation, and selective observation, each of which is concisely explained in a sentence.
Flick then discusses whether it is safe to use 'observation sheets and schemes'; these generate more compact records than Geertz' (1973) 'thick descriptions' in field notes, but risk that
those aspects not contained in the sheet are neither perceived nor noted.
Flick's voice comes through for a moment as he continues
"Therefore, descriptive observation should refrain from using heavily structured sheets".
This example, as well as illustrating the book's own method, goes to the heart of the problem of qualitative research. The observer is, like the quantum physicist, certain to affect what is observed. Observations involving the human observer cannot be perfectly objective, nor can there be a precise definition of what 'should' constitute a set of data or what 'completeness' might mean in a field observation. Flick goes on by quoting Bergmann (from 1985):
"We have only a very limited competence of remembering and reproducing amorphous incidents of an actual social event. The participant observer thus has no other choice than to note the social occurrences which he was witness to mainly in a typifying, resuming, reconstructive fashion."
There follows an example where Becker studied a medical school to find what students learnt other than technical knowledge. Participant observations were carried out over two months in lectures, practical exercises, dormitories and all departments, for periods of up to a whole day.
This leads naturally into the next (standard) subsection, Problems in conducting the method. The first problem is how to select observational situations in which the problem under study becomes 'visible'. One needs to see as much of the range of events as possible, not just the average. Another problem is how to access the field or the studied subculture. Key persons can be vital for introductions, but can themselves distort the perspective or even make access more difficult -- the party line may tend to exclude contact with outsiders.
A completely different danger is 'Going native': this special subsection is given two whole pages to itself, including extended examples. The observer can readily be inundated with events, especially if things happen very rapidly, as was the case for Sprenger who observed medical intensive care units.
Flick quotes Sprenger's suggested remedy, namely choosing when to start (e.g. at the start of a shift), and stopping as soon as the researcher's observational capacity is exhausted, but Sprenger cautions:
"However this requires the researcher to learn about his or her own capacity limits."
It also requires the researcher to maintain a residual awareness - fully immersed, but with a periscope of detachment from the observed activity - so as not to 'adopt perspectives from the field unreflexively'.
The standard structure continues with a subsection on Contribution to the general methodological discussion. Flick points out the dilemma between increasing participation 'from which understanding alone results', and keeping a distance, 'from which understanding becomes merely scientific and verifiable'. In other words, immersion is necessary, but the periscope or snorkel must remain up, in contact with the observer's discipline. Flick remarks that participant observation thus
'comes closest to a conception of qualitative research as a process'
- far closer than classical interviewing, for instance.
The section concludes with a brief mention of Fitting the method into the research process - it belongs with a background of symbolic interactionism - and a page on Limitations of the method. The main problem is that not all phenomena can be observed in situations. Rare events can be captured only with luck; biographical and knowledge processes need to be elucidated by interview.
It is perhaps curious, given the centrality of participant observation and the methodological importance of immersion/detachment in the method, that the Co-operative Inquiry method of John Heron and Peter Reason (involving cycles of immersive and reflective research) is not mentioned. Heron himself sees his method as going beyond qualitative research (by sharing power with the people being studied), so Flick's opinion would be interesting.
In this review I have chosen to give a detailed impression of one method rather than to attempt a thin coverage of the whole book. In so doing, I have of course faced the same kind of problems of selection, generalization, and personal involvement as qualitative researchers encounter in their work. Perhaps by combining general description, example and specific illustrations I have managed to give a taste of Flick's approach and skill.
Norman Denzin writes on the back cover "This is the text I wish I had written!" and it is easy to share in this warmth of praise. The flow of ideas is admirable, making the book of interest to workers in other fields, such as requirements engineering, which apply human techniques of interview and observation for their own ends.
Flick has constructed a rich and detailed picture of a complex field, one full of methodological doubts and contradictions. He has written a text accurate enough for students, but so crisp and clear that it will certainly serve for many years as an invaluable reference to the field.
© Ian Alexander 1998 and 2000
A version of this review appeared in the European Journal of Information Systems.
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