KWALON

This editorial offers an introduction to the current issue.

Qualitative market research has evolved into a serious and respected profession. This article gives an overview of the methods and techniques used in contemporary market research and when and why these techniques are applied.

This contribution is a reply on the article ‘Methoden en technieken in kwalitatief onderzoek’, written by Judith van Male. Andriessen recognises the practise driven reality of the qualitative market researcher in which applicability of results is leading. In addition he suggests a way to incorporate science based knowledge into practice driven qualitative research.

Qualitative market research has evolved into a serious and respected profession. This article is a reply on a comment to her article by Daan Andriessen.

With respect to qualitative research teststudios are often preferred. In this article, criteria for an optimal teststudio are presented, respectively from the perspective of the respondents, the researcher and the client. It is argued that an optimal environment in teststudios contributes to more and better research data.

Since 2008 the Netherlands Institute for Social Research | SCP conducts the Citizens’ Outlooks Barometer (COB), which explores current trends in public opinion in the Netherlands. In the COB quantitative and qualitative research methods are combined to signal trends and new issues, to explain group differences, and to investigate the feelings and arguments behind public concerns. We use focus groups and open-ended survey questions for qualitative research. A main topic in COB has been the development and diversity of trust in political institutions. By combining numbers and arguments, we have tried to put political trust in perspective (it is often more a diffuse image than a deep conviction) and give a better understanding of the (asymmetric) reasons for trust and for distrust. We deal with the usual problems of representation and generalization in qualitative research as good as we can by discussing interpretations in our diverse research team. A main challenge is now to develop more systematic and less time-consuming ways to analyze large sets of open answers in surveys.

This article describes the monitor of the project Alert4you, conducted by the Netherlands Youth Institute. The project Alert4you is a collaboration between youth care and children’s day care. The project’s objective is earlier detection of unusual behaviour in children, providing better support tools to pedagogical staff and improving cooperation with parents. The article describes the monitor’s research design and results. In addition, the researchers describe the advantages of this research method.

Mainstream methodology for quantitative and experimental research can’t come up to many demands of practice-oriented research. Qualitative research strategies often offer very good opportunities as to the accessibility of the object of practice-oriented research and to the utility of its results. However, what are needed is a fully practice-oriented researcher, as well as a further development of the methodology of qualitative causal research, of phenomenological oriented qualitative research strategies, and of qualitative research as a whole.

This contribution is a reply on the article ‘De waarde van kwalitatieve strategieën voor het praktijkgericht onderzoek’, written by Piet J.M. Verschuren. Using the concepts of framing, indolence, dialogue and polyphonic causality Kuiper and Houweling aim at enriching the discourse of causality perceptions in qualitative research presented by Verschuren.

This contribution is a reply to the reaction of Chris Kuiper and Loes Houweling on the article ‘De waarde van kwalitatieve strategieën voor het praktijkgericht onderzoek’, written by Piet J.M. Verschuren.

In this contribution the author reviews Using biographical methods in social research by B. Merrill and L. West.

In this contribution the author reviews Wat is onderzoek? Praktijkboek methoden en technieken voor het hoger onderwijs by N. Verhoeven.

In this contribution the author reviews Research methodology; A step-by-step guide for beginners by R. Kumar.

In memoriam prof. dr. Ilja Maso.

The section News gives an overview of current events.