Alasdair

Name: Alasdair Jones
Affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Geography, University of Exeter

Procedural starting point

The way I described my methods or process in my last funding application was: My last funding application was for a large #interdisciplinary grant for public health-related funding. As a health-led application, the #methods were presented in a rather #formalised, #procedural and #objective way. For instance, the application talked about how certain formal methods would be #applied, and how #predetermined numbers of research participants (e.g. interviewees) would be involved.

What I actually did was / what I usually do is: I am a big advocate of the #rigorous collection and analysis of data in research (and I'm thinking here specifically about #qualitative research, which is the sort of research I conduct). However, while this can imply carefully and accurately following and implementing existing processes and approaches, in my view it also means being mindful of context and #tailoring #methods to #context. In this respect, my actual methods of working do prioritise methodological rigour (including the importance of #transparency), but they are likely to be more #iterative and #contingent than the methods I describe in any research #design (as I strongly believe our methodological approaches need to be #sensitive to real-world conditions etc).