Review: Udo Kelle (2007). Die Integration qualitativer und quantitativer Methoden in der empirischen Sozialforschung [Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Empirical Social Research: Theoretical Foundations and Methodological Concepts]

Abstract

Udo KELLE adds to the debate on integrating qualitative and quantitative methods by going beyond epistemological and pragmatic arguments and placing a stronger emphasis on the area of research and the actual research questions addressed empirically in social science. The fact that social scientific research mainly involves middle-range theories poses specific methodological problems for each of the two research traditions and makes their combination inevitable. The integrative methodological program the author develops can be understood as a new guiding program for evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of qualitative as well as quantitative methods and for deciding in which area of research and for which research questions each methods is best suited. The book provides a wealth of arguments for a theoretical and methodological integration of the two research traditions but these arguments could have been made more accessible by including more examples from actual research projects. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs080386