Small Is Beautiful: In Defense of the Diversity of Qualitative Research

• In Event: Critical Qualitative Research and the Corporatized University: On a Collision Course

Abstract

Internationally, social research in general, and qualitative approaches to social and educational research in particular, have been under attack. The argument has been that social and educational research is too often conceived and conducted as a small scale "cottage industry", producing too many disconnected, non-cumulative studies that do not provide convincing evidence for policy-making. In tandem with this critique governments around the world are seeking better value for money from their investment in research and university teaching. Selectivity and concentration of research resources are particularly being pursued in the UK. The new Conservative dominated coalition government is cutting public spending in the wake of the banking crisis; so there are even fewer resources available and selectivity and concentration become even more severe. Funding agencies and individual universities are being pressurized into concentrating resources on fewer research units and programs, and are taking decisions to develop a 'big science' model of social science by supporting fewer, larger projects, with explicit encouragement to develop cross institutional, mixed method approaches to address the supposedly 'big issues' of our time - health and well being, an aging population, sustainable growth, and so forth. These issues are important, and research evidence should be produced to inform public debate. But such issues are being presented as part of a common-sense, taken-for-granted trade-off of government funding in exchange for social scientists serving policy. Critique, diversity of perspective, and the insight into complexity which detailed qualitative studies can provide are being marginalized. Social science is being reduced to a technical service to government rather than developed as a democratic resource for the community. The paper will review these issues with evidence from UK policy documents and reflect on the ways in which small scale research units, especially those interested in qualitative theory and method, can sustain a critical voice.

Author

• Harry Torrance, Manchester Metropolitan University