Data Lab

The Qualitative Data Lab provides students with specific technical knowledge in the collection and analysis of qualitative data to better understand the various issues related to contemporary social phenomena. In the first part, the Lab will provide knowledge about the distinctive features of the qualitative research; the research design; the use of the principal methods like ethnography and l techniques like participant observation, various types of qualitative interviews, focus groups, shadowing, visual methods for documents analysis, the access to the research field, and the analysis of qualitative data. In the second part, the Lab will focus on the specific methodological tool of the qualitative interview, in particular the semi-structured interview. Students will learn how to build an interview structure; conduct interviews dealing with the complex and related ethical and methodological issues; transcript interviews; analyse interview data and how to write a scientific paper with qualitative data based on the interviews. The Lab will build on an alternation of lectures and exercises. In the exercises students (alone or in groups) will experiment with the methodological tools of the interview.

By the end of the Qualitative Data Lab, students will be able to:
· identify the right qualitative methodological tools for specific research questions;
· build an interview structure;
· conduct an interview and deal with the related ethical and methodological issues;
· analyse interview data;
· present research results in scientific oral and written form