Sunday, 26 April 2015

The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers, 2^nd Edition,
Johnny Saldana, Sage, 2013, page 62

While discussing whether code names/values can be pre-assigned before the coding process starts - which would be argued by some to be begging the question and not in the spirit of Grounded Theory - Saldana makes these comments about 'identity', one of the key terms in my research work:

Some well-intended research goals can emerge as quite problematic. For example, identity, is a concept (or construc, process, phenomenon, etc.) that has multiple approaches to and definitions of it, depending on the discipline - if not the individual. The fields of psychology, sociology, anthropology, human development, education, feminist studies, cultural studies, queer studies, visual studies, etc., each have their own body of scholars, literature, theories and oral tradition about what identity means and consists of.

Ignoring his reprehensible habit of ending a sentence with a preposition, I hope that doesn't mean another raft of work determining what is meant by religious or theological identity!