Values in Qualitative Research
In the talk I map out, and examine, a number of legitimate roles that non-epistemic value may, and sometimes should, play in qualitative research, that is, research making use of qualitative methods like participant observation and semi-structured interviewing. In light of this analysis, I critically discuss the traditional ideal of value-neutrality as well as more recent ideals for values in science.
ToPHSS Lectures are part of the project “Topics in the Philosophy of the Human and Social Sciences”, funded by the Humanities Initiative. The project aims to cross boundaries between disciplines of the humanities and social sciences concerned with ‘the human’, that is with human beings, humanity, society, culture, history, and more. It focuses on methodological and ontological issues, in particular on those concerned with contested categories of the humanities and social sciences, and of those primarily on the categories of human, individual and person. This term the first focus is on the contested divide between nature and culture.