What do quantitative researchers need from qualitative research and what do qualitative researchers need from quantitative research?
This session explores the evolving relationship between quantitative and qualitative researchers by asking what each group needs, and also what each wants, from the other. This discussion necessarily involves revisiting the question of whether it is helpful to conceive of quantitative and qualitative researchers as discrete groups or whether developments in methodological tools and approaches and the long-term move away from lone researchers towards more extensive involvement in teamwork represent a fundamental challenge to this conception. The lessons for the training of researchers so that they are conversant with (if not necessarily expert in) the full range of tools and approaches used in social research will also be discussed.
