“The Times They are a Changing” 1 : Undertaking Qualitative Research in Ambiguous, Conflictual, and Changing Contexts

Authors

Lea Kacen, Ben-Gurion UniversityFollow
Julia Chaitin, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow

Abstract

This article explores qualitative research issues that arise when researchers engage in study within their own ambiguous, unstable, conflictual, and rapidly changing society. We explore the topics of the relationship between the researcher and the context, the difficulty in choosing relevant research quest ions under such conditions, and the relevance of generalizing or transferring findings from such contexts to other sites and populations. We present two research cases from the Israeli context: one that demonstrates an external conflict (between Israelis and Palestinians) and one that demonstrates an internal conflict (between Israelis and Israelis), analyzing them according to these three main issues. Our conclusions focus on the methodological implications that researching one’s ambiguous and conflictual “backyard” have for qualitative researchers.

Keywords

Research and Context, Reflexivity, Researcher as Instrument, Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, and Generalizability and Transferability

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Prof. Dan Bar-On and Prof. Shifra Sagy for sharing their research experiences with us and for their valuable comments on this article.

Publication Date

6-1-2006

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2006.1671

Recommended APA Citation

Kacen, L., & Chaitin, J. (2006). “The Times They are a Changing” 1 : Undertaking Qualitative Research in Ambiguous, Conflictual, and Changing Contexts. The Qualitative Report, 11(2), 209-228. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2006.1671