The Status of Method: Flexibility, Consistency and Coherence

By I. Holloway, L. Todres. 2003

1,098 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Many elements of qualitative research are shared between the variety of approaches, and often the overlap of epistemology, ethics and procedures encourages a generic and flexible view of this type of inquiry. This article argues that there is an essential tension between flexibility on the one hand, and consistency and coherence on the other. Such tension may encourage qualitative researchers to consider the intentions and philosophical underpinnings of the different approaches in greater depth in order to arrive at an epistemological position that can coherently underpin its empirical claims. This article is intended to encourage a more thoughtful engagement with different qualitative approaches by highlighting distinctive elements of three of the most common approaches. We suggest that the researcher be contextsensitive and flexible as well as considerate of the inner consistency and coherence that is needed when engaged in qualitative research.

Subfields: General Health Professions, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/af754c1720263270004277ac50e556a642ff70d3

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In General Health Professions

1. L. Tomkins
2. Daniel Sousa
3. J. Swain
4. Virginia Eatough

In Sociology and Political Science

1. L. Tomkins
2. Daniel Sousa
3. Biljana Mileva-Boshkoska
4. Carmen Lopez
5. Shaofeng Liu
6. J. Swain
7. Virginia Eatough
8. Huilan Chen

Citations in the corpus

• Blockchain technology in agri-food value chain management: A synthesis of applications, challenges and future research directions (2019, background): “Holloway and Todres (2003) underlined that thematic analysis can be seen as a foundational approach for qualitative analysis.”
• Reflecting on the Use of IPA with Focus Groups: Pitfalls and Potentials (2010, background): “As always, greater clarity about the epistemological and ontological foundations of our research will help to underpin our empirical claims and ensure that the criteria being applied to their evaluation are appropriate (Dowling 2007; Holloway & Todres 2003).”
• A Hybrid Approach to Thematic Analysis in Qualitative Research: Using a Practical Example (2018, methodology): “Thematic Analysis Qualitative methods of analysis can be notoriously varied and complex (Holloway & Todres, 2003), and Harry Wolcott (1994) points out that there are at least 50 distinct types of analysis to choose from, including content analysis, interpretative phenomenological analysis, template…”
• Validation in Qualitative Research: General Aspects and Specificities of the Descriptive Phenomenological Method (2014, background): “…such as undisciplined eclecticism and methodological orthodoxy (Henwood & Pidgeon 1992, p. 105; Hill et al. 1997, p. 519; Madill, Jordan & Shirley 2000, p. 2; Holloway & Todres 2003, p. 355); and • One of the assumptions of the last point has to do with the fact that the results of a study may…”