Abstract
Against the backdrop of mounting skepticism about scientism in the social sciences over the past 40 years, qualitative data has achieved a new prominence in human geography. Geographers have become increasingly attentive to the ways people make sense of the places they inhabit and to their understandings of the meaning of action. After first defining qualitative data and setting out some of the forms it takes, this entry discusses a variety of issues surrounding qualitative data collection, trustworthiness, and analysis in human geography. It also discusses some of the powers and liabilities of qualitative data, including consideration of the crisis of representation. The entry concludes by pointing to future challenges that new work on areas such as affect, performativity, and nonrepresentational theory in human geography present for our understandings of qualitative data collection, analysis, and communication.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | International Encyclopedia of Geography |
| Subtitle of host publication | People, the Earth, Environment and Technology |
| Editors | Douglas Richardson, Noel Castree, Michael F. Goodchild, Audrey Kobayashi, Weidong Liu, Richard A. Marston |
| Publisher | Wiley Blackwell |
| Pages | 1-10 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781118786352 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780470659632 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 17 Mar 2020 |
| Externally published | Yes |