Theme 6 - Reflection

Every week it becomes harder to reflect on the topic as I feel that with every week the intention behind the topic is clearer, thus making it easier to answer the questions that are posed before the lecture. It therefore feels like one is repeating oneself more, than actually reflecting on the topic. That being said, one thing we discussed in the lecture about case-study with Hanna Hasselqvist was how hard it was for them to anonymise the data in their case-study. Since they had a Facebook Page to inform the public about the project while the study was being conducted, it became hard to later anonymise the data in the research paper. She mentioned for example, when writing about the issue of driving the kids to sport events it was hard to conceal which of the three family they talked about in the example, because only one of the three family had children that were involved in several sport clubs. Hasselqvist also emphasised how making the public aware of the project gave inside to how people see the issue. Even if they didn't analyse the data on the Facebook page in the final research, it gave them ideas what the public is interested in, what the families feel is important information to share and what concern people might have. Another thing I took away from the lecture is, that the borders between qualitative and quantitative research are sometimes not clear in the beginning. And while both methods might occur during the research, the definition whether it is one or the other depends on which of the two data sets you base your research answer on. Hasselqvist had somewhat of a quantitive approach of finding the right families for the project, however the research data later was gathered using interviews, travel journals (usually only from the week before the monthly interview) and observations by the researcher during the interview at the families home. They also allowed the families to have 24 car trips during the one year research period. However these car trips were not with their own cars, but with borrowed or rented cars, or cabs. The idea behind it was to give the families a sense of security, that if they really had to use a car, they still could, but also to identify in what kind of situations it is really necessary to use a car. They further provided help with for example fixing a bike, or courses on how to ride a bike in winter, and what equipment is necessary. They also had workshops with companies where they discussed problems that arose during the study for the families and how these could be tackled and the situation for the families improved.
The main goal of this case-study to get a better understanding of car-free transportation in practice, to gather input on design considerations for supporting people in sustainable transportation as well as design input from other participants such as the companies.
During the Seminar we discussed our papers as well as our definitions of case-study and the benefits of qualitative research. Again, as with quantitive research as well, there is no one hundred percent correct answer of what it is. It is, ironically, dependent on the case. Generally speaking, the definition I wrote earlier is somewhat still valid. Case studies look upon research topics not in a generalised way, but look at the present situation and analyse it. What we added to that definition in the Seminar is, that case studies are, most of the time, done to find possible research questions, not to answer them. The research question is formulated after the case is analysed. But as mentioned earlier, sometimes the research question is known before, but the research still qualifies for case-study because it is answering that question using one (or view) case(s).