Qualitative Research Group (QRG) - December Newsletter The Qualitative Research Group (QRG) at the University of Manitoba focuses on interdisciplinary collaborations between UM Faculty and local and international communities. The vision of the Qualitative Research Group is to be of assistance to UM Faculty and students engaged in qualitative research in a wide range of sites across the Province, the Prairies, Canada and internationally. The listserv now has over 80 participants working in medicine (community health sciences, dentistry, pediatrics, neurosurgery), nursing, medical rehabilitation, occupational therapy, social work, sociology, anthropology, education, disability studies, human ecology (nutrition, family social sciences), women’s and gender studies, and the Dafoe library. The monthly emails will be sent out on the first of each month and will announce national and international conferences, noon-hour discussions on methodology, research findings, journals and books, and other initiatives of interest. Contributions to the listserv are welcome – please send these two or more working days prior to the last day of any month for compilation. This is an important opportunity for qualitative researchers at the University of Manitoba to come together and build resources. Pass it on! *************************************************************************************************************** DECEMBER Table of Contents: 1. December Actions

a. Call for Papers coming up b. QRG May 6 conference

2. December FactBites a. WWWiT update b. QRG Faculty Speaker Series c. QRG Research Highlight d. READ UP: on a qualitative journal 3. Archive for previous newsletters ************************************************************************************************************** 1. December Action: This section will promote current events with a focus on qualitative research. From time to time, important items from previous newsletters will be revisited.

a. Call for Papers: Bremen Workshop – due December 4, 2008 (*please see attached for details) AND 3rd International Qualitative Conference in Sport and Exercise – due January 26, 2009

http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/communicatingexperiences/index.html b. If you are still interested in sending in an abstract for the May 6, 2009 QRG conference (see previous newsletter), please email this week to trish_farkas@umanitoba.ca.

2. December FactBite: This section will promote research centers, ongoing research, journals and books with a focus on qualitative research.

a. ‘Why don’t We Workshop It?’ (‘WWWiT’) - A regular opportunity for QRG researchers to workshop research related to qualitative methodology. Volunteers have emerged to workshop research on the dates mentioned below alternately on Bannatyne (Research in Science Communications, P220 Pathology) and Fort Garry campus (Life Course Health Initiative, Seminar Room 200B, Human Ecology). TIME: 2 - 4. DATES: January 9 (Bannatyne); February 6 (Fort Garry); March 6 (Bannatyne); April 3 (Fort Garry); May 15 (Bannatyne).

We give permission to copy and paste this newsletter, but please do not alter it

in any way. For more information about QRG, please email rogerk@cc.umanitoba.ca

b. QRG Faculty Speaker Series – You are invited to attend Dr. Ellen Judd talk on ethnography. January 15 from noon to one (*please see poster attached for more details)

c. QRG Research Highlight -

Dr. Michelle Driedger (Department of Community Health Sciences/UM), a health geographer by training, has a number of funded graduate student opportunities. Dr. Driedger’s qualitative research program has a focus on communicating risks and uncertainty to the public in environment and health, and explores the role of public trust in government action. Some of the research grants that she has applied for include: looking at risk tradeoffs comparing the health effects of mosquito abatement programs and West Nile Virus; examining issues of uncertainty around policies and programming with respect to vaccines related to the Human Papillomavirus (HPV); and identifying a stronger role for risk communication in pandemic preparedness. Dr. Driedger holds a Canada Research Chair in Environment and Health Risk Communication. Please contact Michelle_Driedger@Umanitoba.ca for more information: Driedger, S.M., Gallois, C., Sanders, C.B., & Santesso, N. (2006). Finding Common Ground in Team-Based Qualitative Research Using the Convergent Interviewing Method. Qualitative Health Research, 16(8), 1145-1157. Dr. Maria I. Medved (Department of Psychology/UM) I am a licensed practicing psychologist concerned as a researcher with the way people deal with threats to their self-identity in disease or after injury. Drawing on narrative-discursive methods and grounded theory – as well as quantitative methods – I am especially interested in investigating the stories people tell in order to cope with illness and disability. Some of my current and upcoming research issues are neurotrauma narratives; cardiovascular disease narratives told by Aboriginal women; stories by people with developmental disabilities; treatment decision making involving acquired brain injury and dementia triads (health professional, patient, and family); and risk and resilience narratives after traumatic physical injury and burns. For further information, please view my website, http:// home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~medved or contact me, Medved@cc.umanitoba.ca. As an introduction to my work I would suggest: Medved, M. I. & Brockmeier, J. (2008). Continuity amidst chaos: Neurotrauma, loss of memory and sense of self. Qualitative Health Research, 469-479.

d. READ UP on qualitative research in the Medical Anthropology Quarterly – http://www.medanthro.net/maq/index.html

**The next QRG newsletter will be on February 1, 2009. 3. Archive: Previous QRG newsletters are stored at the webpage for the ‘Life Course Health Initiative’: go to - http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/human_ecology/clch/index.html. Click on the icon at the bottom of the main page for the ‘Life Course Health Initiative’ titled ‘research groups’; Then, see option ‘Qualitative Research Group’ and click; then, click on desired archived newsletter (2008: June, July, August, September, October, November).

We give permission to copy and paste this newsletter, but please do not alter it in any way. For more information about QRG, please email

rogerk@cc.umanitoba.ca

The Bremen Workshop

Qualitative Longitudinal Research and Qualitative Resources in Europe:

Mapping the Field and Exploring Strategies for Development

Friday 24th

April 2009

University of Bremen, Germany.

Call for Participation We are pleased to announce a one-day international workshop that will bring together researchers and archivists with an interest in the re-use of qualitative data, and in the development of qualitative longitudinal (QLL) research and data resources across Europe. The workshop is being organized as a collaborative venture between the UK Data Archive, the Timescapes Qualitative Longitudinal Study and Archive, and the Bremen Life Course Archive, with support from the Council for European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA). Funded places to attend the workshop (including travel, meals and two nights accommodation on 23

rd

and 24th of April) are available for European researchers and/or archivists who are interested in

developing Qualitative and Qualitative Longitudinal resources in their respective countries. Presenters will produce a short paper (a country report) outlining existing resources and infrastructure in their countries, and will contribute to discussions on the strategic development of Qualitative Archiving and Qualitative Longitudinal Research across Europe. A limited number of self funding places will also be available. Details of the workshop and how to apply for places at the event are set out below.

Background

CESSDA has a generic remit to develop social science data infrastrucure in Europe, although to date much of this work has been oriented toward Quantitative data and resources. Part of the challenge in broadening the scope of CESSDA is that the ethos of sharing Qualitative data has been slow to develop, while funding for Qualitative Longitudinal (QLL) research and the establishment of QLL datasets for re-use are at an early stage of development. Provision for the collation, organization and re-use of these data is therefore variable across much of Europe.

In the UK and elsewhere varied models for facilitating Qualitative and QLL data sharing are developing e.g. the generic services provided through the UK Data Archive (Essex), and the more specialist historical and themes resources available through the Life Course Archive (Bremen); the Mass Observation Archive (Sussex); and the ‘Timescapes’ Qualitative Longitudinal Archive (Leeds). However these developments are occurring in piecemeal fashion, with little provision for sharing skills or good practice or enhancing collaboration between researchers and archivists across the European community. This workshop is a first step towards developing such provision. The workshop programme is still to be finalized, but the morning session will involve tabling and discussing the country reports, while the afternoon session will explore a range of strategic questions as set out below. The main output from the workshop will be a report which maps out existing resources and infrastructure across Europe and makes recommendations for strategic developments and future collaborations. The aims of the workshop are to:

• Map out Qualitative longitudinal and generic qualitative datasets and resources across Europe, whether held in formal archives, research centres or individual collections

• Document how existing datasets are managed, organised and used

• Explore different models for archiving and sharing data, including the models offered by generic and specialist qualitative archives

• Identify gaps in existing infrastructure

• Explore potential strategies for filling these gaps, strengthening links between researchers and archivists, and enhancing data sharing and re-use

• Develop plans for a European network of Qualitative and Qualitative Longitudinal Data Collections and Qualitative Longitudinal Researchers and Projects, co-ordinated through databases, JiSC lists and catalogues of holdings

• Explore the possibilities for a European-based Timescapes Study and Archive, that will parallel Timescapes UK

The workshop will address a range of strategic questions:

• How effective are existing models of archiving?

• Should existing infrastructure (for quantitative resources) be augmented to include qualitative and QLL data or should separate infrastructure be developed?

• What impact might the drive towards mixed methods research, e.g. in Germany and the UK, have on such decisions?

• Should resources be centralized or devolved? Is there a place for a loose confederation of projects and resources? What are the funding implications?

• Are generic archives the way forward or specialist archives that are thematically driven? Or a mixture of the two? What are the pros and cons of a mixed economy of archiving linked to specific research endeavours and different kinds of data?

• What is the potential for forging closer collaborations between researchers and archivists as the joint curators of research data and joint catalysts for sharing and re-use?

• What strategies are needed to support Qualitative longitudinal research within Europe, to complement and augment Quantitative Longitudinal resources?

• Given the strategic questions posed above, how might such research and resources best be organized?

• What is the potential to develop comparative QLL studies across Europe?

Applications for funded places at the workshop are invited from researchers and/or archivists to co-ordinate and produce a map of research, data and resources in their respective countries, in CESSDA (Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and UK) and elsewhere in Europe. Joint applications from archivists and researchers are particularly welcome. Alternatively, if you would like to contribute material for a country report, please contact us. Early applications are advised as places at the workshop will be limited to 40 Participants. A small number of self funding places will also be available.

Please submit an abstract by email attachment to Linda Fox at l.j.fox@leeds.ac.uk before 4th December 2008.

The organizing team: Professor Bren Neale, Dr Libby Bishop, Dr Louise Corti, Dr Andreas Witzel, Professor Nigel Fielding, Professor Kevin Schurer and Linda Fox.

References: Opitz and Witzel the concept and Architecture of the Bremen life course archive FQS 6 (2) Art. 37 May 2006. Sheridan, D. (1996) Damned Anecdotes and Dangerous confabulations: Mass Observation as life history. Mass Observation occasional paper, no. 7, University of Sussex library. UKDA.

Websites: Timescapes: http://www.timescapes.leeds.ac.uk/ Archive for Life Course Research: http://www.lebenslaufarchiv.uni-bremen.de/index.php?id=567&no_cache=1&L=1 CESSDA: http://www.cessda.org/

“Doing Ethnographic Research: Refractions from Fieldwork in Rural China” Dr. Ellen Judd, PhD. January 15, Time: 12 - 1, Human Ecology Seminar Room 200B Qualitative Research Group, Faculty Speaker Series, University of Manitoba Ethnographic inquiry in its diverse realizations is the core methodological approach of sociocultural anthropology. It was early conceptualized as a metaphorical and holistic “mapping” of another society or culture, although this has been abandoned in favour of consciously positioned thematic and collaborative work. Ethnography remains a usually cross-cultural, in-person and in-depth mode of inquiry that attempts to explore and to relate multiple aspects of social and cultural life within a social setting, and to provide a basis for generating knowledges across cultural boundaries. Ethnography has always been dependent on the intersubjective generation of knowledges and is increasingly open and decentred. Recent decades have generated productive debates and critiques of ethnographic practices and fruitful innovations in fieldwork and its representation. This seminar will briefly introduce elements of ethnographic inquiry that are potentially useful for qualitative researchers beyond anthropology and indicate what this set of tools offers to a multi-disciplinary research design. The focus will be on practice theory approaches to ethnography. The seminar will be illustrated with material from recent ethnographic research in rural China related to development projects and their conceptualization, land rights and (time permitting) kinship practices. There will also be time reserved for discussion. Ellen Judd is a Professor of Anthropology. The presentation’s examples can be found in: Ellen R. Judd. 2008. “’Families We Create’: Women’s Kinship in Rural China as Spacialized Practice.” In Chinese Kinship: Contemporary Anthropological Perspectives, ed. S. Brandtstädter and G. Santos, pp. 29-47. London: Routledge. Ellen R. Judd. 2007. “No Change for Thirty Years: The Renewed Question of Women’s Land Rights in Rural China.” Development and Change 38(4): 691-712. Ellen R. Judd. 2002. The Chinese Women’s Movement between State and Market. Stanford: Stanford University Press.