Quantitative methods

The project does not primarily aim at a comprehensive and representative corpus of data that would be obtained with the help of classical methods in quantitative social analysis. Rather, it integrates quantitative aspects in terms of a mixed-methods approach. Hence, the quantitative analysis serves as a global frame directing some key issues of the qualitative program, such as demographic values. Only in the case of minorities with a very low number of members a fuller coverage of qualitative data may be obtained. Nevertheless, the basic quantitative data available from statistic sources (of different times) will essentially contribute to formulating generalizations concerning the valid raw data. The project will also try to unearth other types of statistics that do not show up in standard demographic monitoring (such as schooling, family size etc.). These data will be supplemented by estimations stemming from key informants (concerning different domains) thus adding the feature of 'local experience' to the quantitative set of data. Some of these estimations may be just impressionistic in nature and depending from the 'position' taken by the given informant. Nevertheless, they will help to discern the quantitative relevance of certain categories.

In addition, the results stemming from the coding of the qualitative data will be analyzed in a statistical way, too. The frequency of the individual codes as well as the frequency of their contexts will essentially help to determine the relevance of given categories that can then again be confronted with more general statistics. In sum, the project aims at depicting a network of quantitative data that allow relevant generalizations.