Russel-Research-Method-in-Anthropology

500 Chapter 17
TABLE 17.4
Part of the Data Matrix from Nyamongo’s Analysis of 35 Gusii Texts
Person Age Sex Occupation SES . . . CTRL1 . . . CAUSE1 . . . HELP1 . . . WITCH . . .
1 48 M retired worker 2 1 1 0 0
2 58 M farmer 1 0 1 0 1
3 68 M clan elder 1 1 1 0 1
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
33 54 F teacher 2 1 1 0 0
34 57 F artisan 2 0 0 0 0
35 26 F housewife 1 1 1 0 1
notes describe the concepts that are being discovered in ‘‘the discovery of
grounded theory.’’ In theory notes, you try to summarize your ideas about
what’s going on in the text. Operational notes are about practical matters.
Once a model starts to take shape, start shopping for negative cases—ones
that don’t fit the pattern. Suppose you comb through a set of narratives from
women in the labor market. Some women say that they got upset with their
last job and quit. You find that most of the women who did this have husbands
who earn a pretty good living. Now you have a take-this-job-and-shove-it category.
Is there a case in which a woman says ‘‘You know, I’d be outta this
crummy job in a minute if I didn’t have two kids at home to take care of’’?
Don’t wait for that case to come to you. Go looking for it.
Negative cases either disconfirm parts of a model or suggest new connections
that need to be made. In either case, negative cases need to be accommodated
when you present your results. (Negative case analysis is discussed in
detail by Becker et al. 1961:37–45, Strauss and Corbin 1990:108–109, Lincoln
and Guba 1985:309–313, Dey 1993:226–233, and Miles and Huberman
1994:271.)
Displaying Concepts and Models
So, how do you actually build those models and what do they really look
like? Here’s a step-by-step example.
Margaret Kearney and her colleagues (Kearney et al. 1995) interviewed 60
women who reported using crack cocaine an average of at least once weekly
during pregnancy. The semistructured interviews lasted from 1 to 3 hours and
covered childhood, relationships, life context, previous pregnancies, and
actions during the current pregnancy related to drug use, prenatal care, and
self-care. Kearney et al. coded and analyzed the transcripts as they went. As