Reply To: Block 4

[Nicholas Hopwood]

Hi Amanda
Thank you for giving the ACID format a go!

I really loved the features of parity with quantitative research that you identified: literature, ways of doing, and audit trail. I think they are an excellent set of features that apply to all genres of research. Geoffrey Walford would love this!

I agree also with your ‘C’ about truth: yes, while we don’t want fabrications or lies, things made up on the spot to placate what a participant thinks we want to hear, it is very reductive to think in a binary between truth and lies.

And yes, again – our whole angle in this subject has been along the lines that lots of methodological rules and procedures are necessary but not sufficient to deliver good research. Craft is part of what is missing, but other things too (passion, creativity, insight, intuition, cultural experience, the body, etc).

And finally I’d be super happy if one outcome of this subject was that some of you felt confident in designing research where what you uniquely can do, feel, interpret, realise, notice etc comes through – rather than rushing to the lowest common denominator of what anyone (or anyone with decent lit knowledge and methods training) could do…