Watch Me

I found this great picture here: http://chrisguillebeau.com/3x5/turn-around-and-say-watch-me/

What I'm Up To

Good reminder to myself

You can turn a bad draft into a good one, but you can’t turn no draft into a good draft.-Leo Babauta

When is the change going to be over?

When is the change going to be over?

Posted using ShareThis

Diversity & Social Justice Comp

I passed. I am thankful.

I Am Just Like You

I Am Just Like You

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Can

http://www.theflowmarket.com/

Anti-Fast Food

I got this from:
http://zenhabits.net/2009/10/the-anti-fast-food-diet/


“There is a meditation exercise in which you place a raisin in your mouth. You do not eat the raisin. You meditate and allow it to sit in your mouth unmolested. The raisin plumps up and becomes a juicy fruitness in your mouth, tempting you to bite it. This is a powerful example of how eating is different when you are truly aware of each morsel.” - Thich Nhat Hanh
Post written by Leo Babauta.





When my family and I visited Tokyo earlier this year, it was a bit sad to see the rise of fast food in Japan.
It’s a beautiful country with a rich history of a traditional lifestyle, incredible food, and good health. They’ve perfected the art of food preparation, using the freshest ingredients to create small portions of beautiful dishes.
And while there still aren’t many fat Japanese people, especially compared to the U.S., I’d bet that will change with the insidious growth of fast food restaurants on many a street corner. McDonald’s is prevalent, of course, but so are many other Western food chains and an increasing number of Japanese fast food outlets.



It’s been awhile since I’ve written about the Slow Food movement, but I really believe it’s the answer to many of our problems: health and obesity, the hectic and stressful pace of modern life, and the lack of happiness in a complex and often burdensome world.



This is the Anti-Fast Food Diet — a way to not only lose weight and get healthier, but to change your life to one of simplicity, moderation, and joy.



Abandon fast food, and all the values it brings: mass consumption, mass production, the exploitation of workers, the destruction of the environment, the destruction of small local businesses, the corporatization of our culture.
Instead, embrace Slow Food. Here’s how.



Stop rushing to eat. Set aside more time for eating, for shopping and preparation, for enjoying life. Stop rushing to fast food places because it’s convenient — because it’s not so convenient to be hospitalized. Instead, make time, and take things a bit slower.






Prepare your own meals. I know, who has the time? You do. Make the time, and cook simple meals without a lot of ingredients or preparation time. It takes 10 minutes to whip together a healthy and tasty lunch or dinner. And it can be a lot of fun (get the family or your partner involved). Preparing your own meals is healthier, frugal, and you know you’re eating good food.






Eat real food, not processed. Buy fresh ingredients such as fruits, veggies, whole grains, nuts, beans, and the like. Use ingredients you can recognize, not things filled with chemicals. Don’t use prepared food if you can avoid it — microwaveable or boxed foods are not the best. Avoid processed food at all costs.






Eat slowly and mindfully. Too many people stuff food down their gullets these days. It’s not healthy, and you’ve just consumed food without enjoying it. Instead, take the time to chew your food, to taste it, to be present as you eat.






Enjoy the food. Fully savor each bite. Appreciate the miracle of the food you’re eating, and be grateful you have that bite at all.






Take time to breathe, and smile. Before you begin to eat, smile, and take a deep breath, reminding yourself to be present and enjoy the food. Between bites, instead of rushing to the next bite, breath, relax, enjoy. Savor the moment.






When drinking tea, just drink tea. When eating, just eat. Be fully present. Don’t read a book or surf the net or drive or work or anything else but eat and drink.






Good conversation. OK, the exception to the above rule: eating with friends and family. Fast food has destroyed the good meal and conversation, because we’re rushing as we eat and don’t have time for a good talk. Bring it back.






When you do eat at a restaurant, make it a good one. Avoid the fast food places, but also the chain restaurants (Chilis, TGI Fridays, Lone Star, Olive Garden, etc). Go to locally owned restaurants where they use real ingredients and really make good food. These may be more expensive, but you’re not supporting a corporation and your food will be better, and even if it means eating out less that’s OK — quality is more important than quantity.






“There are some people who eat an orange but don’t really eat it. They eat their sorrow, fear, anger, past, and future.” - Thich Nhat Hanh






“When you eat with awareness, you find that there is more space, more beauty. You begin to watch yourself, to see yourself, and you notice how clumsy you are or how accurate you are. … So when you make an effort to eat mindfully…, you find that life is worth much more than you had expected.” - Chogyam Trungpa

Rob Bell's Beatitudes

My friend Adam over at: http://adammoore.us/post/218350418/rob-bell-on-the-beatitudes#disqus_thread

Rob Bell on the Beatitudes
Blessed are those who don’t have it all together.
Blessed are those who have run out of strength, ideas, will power, resolve, or energy.
Blessed are those who ache because of how severely out of whack the world is.
Blessed are those who stumble, trip, and fall in the same place again and again.
Blessed are those who on a regular basis have a dark day in which despair seems to be a step behind them wherever they go.
Blessed are you, for God is with you, God is on your side, God meets you in that place.
The gospel is the counter-intuitive, joyous, exuberant news that Jesus has brought the unending, limitless, stunning love of God to even us.
(via @realrobbell)

10 things I've learned about me!

1. I have to feed my mind else I grow bored and restless. My number 1 strength is “Ideation” and if I don’t have new ideas to talk and think about I get restless and bored so I’ll begin seeking new adventures.

2. I need 8 hours of sleep a day. No cutting corners for me! If I don’t get rest I’m useless.


3. I recharge through being at home and alone; I’m depleted by busy-ness. I need time alone with no people in order to recharge those batteries. I love when I get one of those weekends where Ray goes hunting or such and Joshlyn is busy. I get to stay in my scruffy clothes, clean and recharge!

4. I just really don’t like TV.

5. I relax best with a little chocolate. When nothing else will go down, chocolate will!

6. Ambiguity causes me anxiety. I actually don’t like that much change!

7. I always return to my faith.

8. I love camping-the disconnection is refreshing no matter the tempreture!

9. I have to have some alone time each week or I get EDGY. Others might use another word but I think edgy works.

10. I am funny and I believe humor is a foundational component to a successful relationship.

Stop Being A Victim

I read this over on The Positivity Blog and found it rich with advice.

http://www.positivityblog.com/

How to Break Out of a Victim Mentality: 7 Powerful Tips

by HENRIK EDBERG.

“If it’s never our fault, we can’t take responsibility for it. If we can’t take responsibility for it, we’ll always be its victim.”
Richard Bach

“Self-pity is easily the most destructive of the nonpharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality.”
John W. Gardner

One big problem a lot of people have is that they slip into thinking of themselves as victims that have little or no control over their lives. In this headspace you feel sorry for yourself, the world seems to be against you and you get stuck. Little to no action is taken and you get lost in a funk of sadness and self-pity.

So how can you move out of that mindset? In this article I’d like to share a few things that have helped me.

1. Know the benefits of a victim mentality.There are a few benefits of the victim mentality:

Attention and validation. You can always get good feelings from other people as they are concerned about you and try to help you out. On the other hand, it may not last for that long as people get tired of it.

You don’t have to take risks. When you feel like a victim you tend to not take action and then you don’t have to risk for example rejection or failure.

Don’t have to take the sometimes heavy responsibility. Taking responsibility for you own life can be hard work, you have to make difficult decisions and it is just heavy sometimes. In the short term it can feel like the easier choice to not take personal responsibility.

It makes you feel right. When you feel like the victim and like everyone else – or just someone else – is wrong and you are right then that can lead to pleasurable feelings.

In my experience, by just being aware of the benefits I can derive from victim thinking it becomes easier to say no to that and to choose to take a different path.

It also makes it easier to make rational decisions about what to do. Yes, I know that I can avoid risk and the hard work of taking action by feeling like a victim. But I also know that there are even more positive results if I choose to take the other route, if I make the better choice to take a chance and start moving forward.

2. Be ok with not being the victim. So to break out of that mentality you have to give up the benefits above. You might also experience a sort of emptiness within when you let go of victim thinking. You may have spent hours each week with thinking and talking about how wrong things have gone for you in life. Or how people have wronged you and how you could get some revenge or triumph over them.

Now you have to fill your life with new thinking that may feel uncomfortable because it is not so intimately familiar as the victim thinking your have been engaging in for years.

3. Take responsibility for your life.

Why do people often have self-esteem problems? I’d say that one of the big reasons is that they don’t take responsibility for their lives. Instead someone else is blamed for the bad things that happen and a victim mentality is created and empowered. This damages many vital parts in your life. Stuff like relationships, ambitions and achievements. That hurt will not stop until you wise up and take responsibility for your life. There is really no way around it.

And the difference is really remarkable. Just try it out. You feel so much better about yourself even if you only take personal responsibility for your own life for a day.

This is also a way to stop relying on external validation like praise from other people to feel good about yourself. Instead you start building a stability within and a sort of inner spring that fuels your life with positive emotions no matter what other people say or do around you.

4. Gratitude.When I feel that I am putting myself in victim role I like to ask myself this question: “Does someone have it worse on the planet?” The answer may not result in positive thoughts, but it can sure snap you of a somewhat childish “poor, poor me…” attitude pretty quickly. I understand that I have much to be grateful for in my life.

This question changes my perspective from a narrow, self-centered one into a much wider one. It helps me to lighten up about my situation.

After I have changed my perspective I usually ask another question like:

“What is the hidden opportunity within this situation?”

That is very helpful to keep your focus on how to solve a problem or get something good out a current situation. Rather than asking yourself “why?” over and over and thereby focusing on making yourself feel worse and worse.

5. Forgive. It’s easy to get wrapped up in thinking that forgiveness is just about something you “should do”. But forgiving can in a practical way be extremely beneficial for you. One of the best reasons to forgive can be found in this quote by Catherine Ponder:

“When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.”

As long as you don’t forgive someone you are linked to that person. Your thoughts will return to the person who wronged you and what s/he did over and over again. The emotional link between the two of you is so strong and inflicts much suffering in you and – as a result of your inner turmoil – most often in other people around you too.

When you forgive you do not only release the other person. You set yourself free too from all of that agony.

6. Turn your focus outward and help someone out.

The questions in tip #4 are useful. Another question I use when I get into the victim headspace is simply: “How can I give value right now?” Asking that question and making that shift in what you focus on really helps, even if you may not feel totally like doing it.

So I figure out how I can give someone else value, how I can help someone out.

And thing is that the way you behave and think towards others seems to have a big, big effect on how you behave towards yourself and think about yourself. For example, judge people more and you tend to judge yourself more. Be more kind to other people and help them and you tend to be more kind and helpful to yourself.

A bit counter intuitive perhaps, but that has been my experience. The more you love other people, the more your love yourself.

7. Give yourself a break. Getting out of a victim mentality can be hard. Some days you will slip. That’s ok. Be ok with that.

And be nice to yourself. If you have to be perfect then one little slip is made into a big problem and may cause you to spiral down into a very negative place for many days.

It is more helpful to just give yourself a break and use the tips above to move yourself into a positive and empowered headspace once again.

Khmer Women on the Move by Annuska Derks

1. Methodological approach & Writing Style

a. After having read some engaging and excellent books (In Search of Respect, Sheila’s Shop and Sidewalk) I had great hopes for Khmer Women on the Move by Annuska Derks. Unfortunately I have found myself counting pages in order to finish the book, as I did with Unequal Childhoods. The book suggest it will explore the work and life in urban Cambodia. My excitement was further fueled because of Alex’s work in Cambodia. I looked forward to hearing the voice of those who lived through the Khmer Rouge and those who were born after, who are growing into women since the war and terror reign ended-how have their lives been shaped and how are they shaping their lives.

b. I have learned a great bit about life of Cambodian women both in the urban world as well as village life. I’ve learned about the language-which I really appreciate, but I’ve missed the actual VOICE of women. Like the author of Unequal Childhoods, the author Khmer Women on the Move provides less of the voice of the participants, less of the story and more of a summary of issues.

c. I’m disappointed because the potential is so great. One of the very basic things I learned in one of the first classes of my doctoral program was that qualitative data should be RICH & THICK. In Khmer Women on the Move I find the data to be THIN & SPARSE. On page 46 there is a paragraph on gender meanings of power and subservience. The author asks:

How useful are texts like the Chbap Srey that were written centuries ago? Do these texts hold any relevance for present gender ideals or should they be seen as merely an idealized picture of norms and values of a minority elite in a previous time?

I wrote in the margin: what a great place for participant voice. In this example I demonstrate how the majority of this book offers a summary of topics but does not offer participant voice to put some “meat on the bones.” I believe it would have been so intriguing to have three perspectives on this. An elder who is in the stage of Cambodian life where she is taken care of by her children or grandchildren and is able to focus on spiritual matters-what does she think of the relevance of the Chbap Srey?

An unmarried sex worker living in Phnom Penh and finally a married young woman. These three perspectives or voices would have made the question come to life-would have helped me feel like I knew the women.

2. Findings based on data

a. The author does an excellent job of documenting facts and perspectives. To me the book feels like one LONG literature review section. Because of the lack of participant voices, the quotes and references seem to link fact or perspective together rather than supporting a participant voice or assertion.

Handwashing Doesn't Matter

I was diligent in washing my hands! I even avoided touching door handles, opting instead to push with my forearm or holding the door open with my foot. Even being cautious, I still had this:

Swine Flu Symptoms

According to the CDC, like seasonal flu, symptoms of swine flu infections can include:

• fever, which is usually high, but unlike seasonal flu, is sometimes absent
• cough
• runny nose or stuffy nose
• sore throat
• body aches
• headache
• chills
• fatigue or tiredness, which can be extreme
• diarrhea and vomiting, sometimes, but more commonly seen than with seasonal flu

Charlotte FOR SURE had this! I had to go to the doctor's office today and it was FULL. Even the nurse was sniffly too!

Findings Based on Data-Sidewalk

I learned more about the workings of New York from reading Sidewalk than I've ever known before. Never before, in my life, could I discuss Local Law #33. No joke! I believe I am able to have an intelligent discussion about the pros and cons or as Duneier put it how "Every policy h as its unintended consequences" (p. 187) of the written matter law. As someone stated on our threaded discussion: this guy fact checks!

I'm amazed at how easily Duneier weaves in an education about conversation analysis and details the length of time for a female to respond or simply how accurate Mudrick's portrayal of his relaitonship with his grandaughter is-due to fact presentation.

Duneier painstakingly presents facts that have been well-checked every lead followed beyond what is needed but is certainly appreciated.

Duneier discusses in his methodology section that he was, at times, close to broke-so much so that he could barely afford the tapes for the tape recorder; yet I began reading the book thinking "this guy must have a trust fund or something to have the money to hang around on the sidewalk for several years." Yet what I'm so amazed to learn is that Duneier did not have endless money nor did he simply sit on the sidewalk constantly for five years-rather he worked summers and holidays on the sidewalk picking up his stories where he left off.

One of the amazing things is that the social order of the sidewalk seems to have remained relatively stable during these years whereas most middle-class "housed" individuals would think these "unhoused" folks to be completely unstable and wanderers.

I think Duneier's data almost flawless and from my inexperienced perspective I am star-struck.

From Cuteoverload.com

Sidewalk-More Writing Style & Viewpoints

Duneier makes three statements supporting my previous reframing discussion:

· “These conditions lead to a resocialization of the individual” (p. 185).

· “Every policy has its unintended consequences” (p. 18

· “not simply because the sidewalk was different but because the lens for viewing the sidewalk was different” (p. 192).

Previously I noted how the men (and Alice) actually “fit” in to a society that has been created for and by them and thus the quote above where Duneier states the lens for viewing is different. Because of his relationships with the men, just as Bourgois had relationships in In Search of Respect, so too did Duneier develop relationships with these individuals. However Duneier does tremendous work to follow every story to its origin. Still the microcosm created on the sidewalk is a miniature system. I was repeatedly amazed at the level of detail and the worries, thoughts, troubles, struggles, and joys the sidewalk men experienced, they were so very normal.

Irony

I admit as I entered the final third of the book I struggled to keep going. The density was fairly consuming and Duneier provided so much thought-provoking data that to keep going seemed overwhelming.

I found the discussion on bodily functions interesting. In one passage the author writes:

“Washington fucking Square Park and they can’t put toilet seats right here? They could fix it, but they don’t want to fix it. They want to keep our ass out of there. I can’t go I there and take a dump in there. I can hardly hold my breath to go in that motherfucker. If I had to take a dump right now, I’d go right behind that tree right there. It’s air out there. You go in there, you ain't got no privacy. That thing suppose to have a partition.” p. 185.

How very ironic that Mudrick is so upset about the ability to have privacy in the restroom yet he states if he needed to go, he’d just go behind a tree in the park. This strikes me as profoundly ironic and an excellent example of how Mudrick and his associates function in a world within the world and sometimes the world he functions in has different values, assumptions, and behaviors associated that the greater system may frown upon, yet created.

Writing Style-Sidewalk

I have thoroughly enjoyed the readability of Sidewalk. I find Duneier's style engaging and enlightening. The conversations Duneier presents are relevant and have a fit with his micro and macro theory discussions.

Duneier does an excellent job of leading the reader into and out of all quotes while using theory wisely. I find that Duneier writes in a way that theory is used not only after a quote but is used to introduce quotes or conversations and is done so in a way that any educated reader can find useful and then practically applied in the quote or conversation.

Duneier's work gave respect and a needed view of the life of the people such as Hakim, Mudrick, Marvin, Ron or Joe Garbage. Instead of using the dominant (and easier) view of these individuals as simply deviants who cannot fit into society, Duneier brilliantly (in my opinion) demonstrates and documents how these men fit wonderfully into society, the society that has been handed to them! Duneier states "But after spending five years on the blocks, I would propose that the role of the public character need not be filled by conventionally respectable people. Not only do the vendors and scavengers, often unhoused, abide by codes and norms; but mostly their presence on the street enhances the social order" (p. 43).

In a quote I noted previously I appreciated the transparency Duneier that he was uneasy about the looking at the gaps between himself and the people he sought to understand. Possibly he was worried that what separated "them" from "us" was not such a great abyss after all. Once Duneier began presenting the story of the sidewalk and the individuals who worked there, plus those who interacted with them, the individuals became real persons, not deviants that could easily be labeled and ignored. Mudrick's love for his granddaughter is a love easily shared as we all have children or relatives we adore. Further Ron has his incidents where he indulges in drink or drugs but Marvin takes it in stride. Instead of becoming furious Marvin has an even temperament and prepares for how to respond-just as we would with a treasured friend struggling with an addiction.

This book is a gift in the it offers a respectable view and honestly lives out the golden rule: treat others as you would want to be treated. I find Duneier's kindness and respect towards these relationships one created out of his care and respect.

GREAT Article from Zen Habits Contributor Jonathan Mead

http://zenhabits.net/2009/09/the-world-needs-you-to-do-what-you-love/

This is an excellent article. Even just the first couple of paragraphs are a treasure:

Article by Zen Habits contributor Jonathan Mead.

The greatest change happens because of people that are deeply passionate, and have a great love for the work they do.

If you want to make a difference in the world, the single most important thing you can do is consciously and deliberately choose to do work that you are passionate about.

No other choice can have a greater impact on the planet, or your life.

Methodological Memo-Sidewalk-3; Looking for what's going on

"At this stage of my research, I sought mainly to diagnose the processes at work in this setting and to explain the observed patterns of interactions of people." (p. 341)

Duneier states that he believes 2 things that I like:

1. You really need to decide your design after you collect data

2. He really sought to determine the processes (maco) going on and then to explain the relationships between people in relation to these relationships

As a doctoral STUDENT I don't believe we get the freedom to collect data prior to having a design! I can just imagine trying to explain THAT to an IRB! Thus I believe that one must be flexible in design but has to have an outline and a direction in order to be realistic-at least until one has the freedom to spend several years on the sidewalk.

I really appreciate the observations (and pictures) presented by Duneier. The story is engaging and enlightening. Duneier does a thorough job of using theory to inform his work (although he states that he found the theories after he'd already begun collecting data) and finding a nice fit between many of the relationships observed and sociological or political theory. Further Duneier does a nice job of documenting the systemic responses to local law 33 as well as federal laws (such as those related to crack versus cocaine and the prison or jail time related to each).

Diagnostic Ethnography & Extended Place Method

I find it fascinating that Duneier's Sidewalk is labeled by Erik Wright. Isn't this just ethnography?

Creswell (2007) writes "Although a grounded theory researcher develops a theory from examining many individuals who share in the same process, action, or interaction, the study participants are not likely to be located in the same place or interacting on so frequent a basis that they develop shared patterns of behavior, beliefs, and language. An ethnographer is interested in examining these shared patterns, and the unit of analysis is larger than the 20 or so individuals involved in a grounded theory study. An ethnography focuses on an entire cultural group." (p. 68)

Seeming to suggest a similar diagnosis as Duneier, Creswell states "Ethnography is a qualitative design in which the researcher describes and interprets the shared and learned patterns of values, behaviors, beliefs, and language of a culture-sharing group" (p. 68). Where Duneier and Creswell differ is in explicitly examining the macro relationships or processes that link behaviors with broad processes that link behaviors with sociological theories.

Duneier stradle multiple types of ethnography. Duneier takes some components of a critical ethnography but is not an advocate for emancipation while also using visual ethnography by using the work of Ovie Carter while using both the extended case and participant observation method.

All of these things meld into an engaging and easily readable work.

Methodological Memo-Sidewalk-2 SKIMPY

From Sidewalk:

"On the other hand, when it comes to the connection between these details and constraints and opportunities, his or her claims can seem quite skimpy by contrast." (p. 343)

On several occasions I have changed my writing because I did not have enough detail to document my claim well-enough. Duneier's note, above, provides some relief from the pressure of having to have "3 points and an alter call" in my work.

I liked that Duneier allows for the space for "skimpy" work because before a theory is born it is a notion and that notion my come from one situation that prompted inquiry.

I believe that the exponential strides we make in learning come from skimpy situations where we take a chance or question a notion-not in taking the safe routes and only detailing what we have robust documentation (which leads to incremental learning most of the time, not exponential!)

Great Thought to Ruminate On..

Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith. Henry Ward Beecher.

I choose faith.

Methodological Memo-Sidewalk

I have greatly enjoyed Sidewalk by Mitchell Duneier.

After reading about one-third of the work I wanted to know more about the methodology so I flipped to the Appendix where Duneier discusses his methods. Several statements captured my attention:

• "Fieldwork can be a morally ambiguous enterprise." (p. 336)

• "The question for me is how to show respect for the people I write about, given the impossibility of complete sincerity at every moment (in research as in life)." (p. 336)

• "Surely, it would have been a methodological error for me to believe that apparent rapport is real trust" (p. 338).

• "Once again the Becker principle comes into play: most social processes are so organized that the presence of a tape recorder (or a white male) is not as influential as all the other pressures, obligations, and possible sanctions in the setting." (p. 340)

• "There were things that showed up over and over again on my tape" (this is the data talking and the part I just love!)

• "At this stage of my research, I sought mainly to diagnose the processes at work in this setting and to explain the observed patterns of interactions of people." (p. 341)

• "Research design often emerges after data has been collected" (Oh the LUXURY of already having your PhD)

• "There is no such thing as a logical method for having new ideas" (This is just SO TRUE for someone who has IDEATION as her #1 strength!!!)

• "On the other hand, when it comes to the connection between these details and constraints and opportunities, his or her claims can seem quite skimpy by contrast." (p. 343)

• "Most people were much more interested in how they looked in the photographs than in how they sounded or were depicted." (p. 348)

Thoughts in response to these quotes:

• Is fieldwork really morally ambiguous? I believe we start off with a moral urging which drives us into the fieldwork, which shapes our research and research question(s) but do we really become ambiguous as we submerge ourself into the data? In thinking about fieldwork I would say that it is critical to be open to more than one interpretation however is it vital to be morally open to more than one? As I wrestle with this notion I believe it important to be open because my own values may not be the values and priorities of those in my study those I should not impose my values, beliefs onto the participant.
• "Once again the Becker principle comes into play: most social processes are so organized that the presence of a tape recorder (or a white male) is not as influential as all the other pressures, obligations, and possible sanctions in the setting." (p. 340)-So this thought basically proposes that life is on "autopilot" and until something knocks life off-course it will continue on the same path in mindless movement. I agree with this. I think that American society gets so caught up in the busy-ness of life that we forget to experience life. In Unequal Childhoods the author noted one child's life that was so structured and so busy he had little time for reflection or even a slow pace. I think our country is on autopilot and it takes a big "something" every once in a while to whack us off course for us to re-examine priorities and values. I think this is the case for Christians too!

Great Quote from Sidewalk by Mitchell Duneier

"When I began, I knew that if I was to find out what was taking place on the sidewalk, I would have to bridge many haps between myself and the people I hoped to understand. This involved thinking carefully about who they are and who I am. 

I was uneasy." (p. 20)

I think this is a powerful quote and applicable to many of life's (and faith's) situations!

Single or Multiple Case Study Design

Yin leans on the quantitative verbiage a good deal and even divorces case study from an assumed qualitative linkage. Yin believes a case study can be a quantitative or mixed methods design and is not strictly qualitative.

Although a good bit of Yin's writing is over my head or would be more useful if discussed in a group, I'm learning a good bit from Yin.

What Are the Potential Single-Case Designs?

Rationale for single-case designs

Critical case in testing a well-formulated theory

Extreme case or unique case

Representative or typical case

Revelatory case

Longititudinal case

Potential Shortcomings:

Case may later turn out not to be the case it was thought to be

Holistic versus embedded case study

o More than one unit of analysis occurs when, within a single case, attention is also given to a subunit or subunits

o A typical problem with the holistic design is that the entire case study may be

o conducted at an unduly abstract level, lacking sufficiently clear measures of data

o A further problem with the holistic design is that the entire nature of the case study may shift, unbeknownst to the researchers, during the course of the study.

o An embedded design can serve as an important device for focusing a case study inquiry

An embedded designs, however, also has its pitfalls. A major one occurs when the case study focuses only on the subunit level and fails to return to the larger unit of analysis

What Are the Potential Multiple-Case Designs?

The evidence from multiple cases is often considered more compelling, and the overall study is therefore regarded as being more robust.

Rationale for multiple-case designs-The simplest multiple-case design would be the selection of two or more cases that are believed to be literal replications, such as a set of cases with exemplary outcomes in relation to some evaluations questions, such as “how and why a particular intervention has been implemented smoothly”

Multiple-Case Studies: Holistic or embedded

The difference between these two variants depends upon the type of phenomenon being studied and your research questions In an embedded design, a study even may call for the conduct of a survey at each case study site.

Criteria for Judging the quality of research designs

Criteria for Judging the quality of research designs

Four tests have been commonly used to establish the quality of any empirical social research:

Construct validity: identifying correct operational measures for the concepts being studied;

Internal validity: (for explanatory or causal studies only and not for descriptive or exploratory studies): seeking to establish a causal relationship, whereby certain conditions are believed to lead to other conditions, as distinguished from spurious relationships;

External validity: defining the domain to which a study’s findings can be generalized;

Reliability: demonstrating that the operations of a study—such as the data collection procedures—can be repeated, with the same results

Construct validity-

Three tactics are available to increase construct validity when doing case studies.

The first is the use of multiple sources of evidence in a manner encouraging

convergent lines of inquiry, and this tactic is relavant during data collection.

The second tactic is to establish a chain of evidence, also relevant during data collection.

The third tactic is to have the draft case study report reviewed by key informants.

Internal validity-

Internal validity is mainly a concern for explanatory case studies, when an

investigation is trying to explain how and why event x led to event y.

Tactics: pattern matching, explanation building, addressing rival explainations, and

using logic models.

External Validity-

Case studies (as with experiments) rely on analytic generalization. In analytical generalization, investigator is striving to generalize a particular set of results to some broader theory.

Reliability-

The objective is to be sure that, if a later investigator followed the same procedures as described by an earlier investigator and conducted the same case study all over again.

Document the procedures followed in the earlier case.

The use of a case study protocol to deal with the documentation problem in detail

and the development of a case study database

Case Study Research, Design and Methods (4th edition)

Notes from Case Study Research Design and Methods

Chapter 1

The distinctive need for case studies arises out of the desire to understand complex social phenomena.

“How” and “why” questions are explanatory and likely lead to the use of case studies, histories, and experiments as the preferred research methods. This is because such questions deal with operational links needing to be traced over time, rather than mere frequencies or incidence.

Case studies, like experiments, are generalizable to theoretical propositions and not to populations or universes.

A case study is an empirical inquiry that

o Investigates a contemporary phenomenon in depth and with its real-life context, especially when

o The boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident

The case study inquiry

o Copes with the technically distinctive situation in which there will be many more variables of interest than data points, and as one results

o Relies on multiple sources of evidence, with data needing to converge in a

triangulating fashion, and as another result

o Benefits from the prior development of theoretical propositions to guide data collection and analysis

Chapter 2-Designing Case Studies

Definition of Research Designs

In the most elementary sense, the design is the logical sequence that connects the empirical data to a study’s initial research questions and ultimately to its conclusions

Another way of thinking about a research design is a “blueprint” for your research, dealing with at least four problems: what questions to study, what data are relevant, what data to collect, and how to analyze the results.

Components of Research Design:

1. a study’s questions

2. its propositions, if any

3. its unit(s) of analysis

4. the logic linking the data to the propositions

5. the criteria for interpreting the findings

The Role of Theory in Design Work-For case studies, theory development as part of the design phase is essential, whether the ensuing case study’s purpose is to develop or to test theory.

Analytic generalization, in which a previously developed theory is used as a template with which to compare the empirical results of the case study.