Yale University

Yale’s division is just one of the few — indeed, we have been maybe perhaps not conscious of just about any — that offers qualitative and archival practices as an extensive field that is doctoral. Numerous divisions offer graduate courses in qualitative practices. But, it would appear that we have been unique in supplying a comprehensive industry that certifies expertise during these techniques.

Yale faculty users begin to see the department’s dedication to doctoral training in qualitative and archival research as an element of our overarching commitment to methodological pluralism. We respect these procedures as complementary to analytical and formal practices, all of these have diverse talents and weaknesses in confronting the difficulties of descriptive and inference that is causal.

We define “qualitative methods” broadly, including interviews, participant observation, ethnographic mapping, the recording of dental records, focus teams, and historical supply analysis, in addition to some areas of studies (specially less structured protocols) and experiments ( e.g., debriefing after experiments).

Archival practices usually face the exact same challenges to descriptive and causal inference and so are usually coupled with qualitative practices (and undoubtedly usually additionally with formal and/or analytical practices) in research on subjects including state building to governmental physical physical violence to welfare state policies and methods to neighborhood governance. Read more →