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Summary The arts in society, Chapter 2
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Summary of chapter 2, the arts in society, the literature of week 39.
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Literature week 39. The arts in society. Chapter 2Research methods: quantitative or qualitative?
Level of research: is it geared towards individuals or broad societal developments
Object of our investigations: which parts of the art world are being researched?
Quantitative methods express social conditions and developments in numbers and align with the
notion of ‘measurement’ that is prominent in the paradigm adopted in general by the natural
sciences. Quantitative approaches concur with what most people think of when they hear the word
‘science’. Quantitative and qualitative research methods complement one another.
Quantitative Research Methods
Use quantitative data when they are available. Quantitative research methods are used in those
cases where a scientist wants to test assumptions about correlations between phenomena in society.
quantitative methods are used to test assumptions, or hypotheses, about social phenomena.
Quantitative research is also helpful in describing a certain population. In quantitative research the
researcher can survey a large number of subjects (people or organizations). If a sample of the general
population of these research subjects is drawn randomly, which implies that each of the research
subjects has the same chance of being included in the sample, the findings of the research can be
generalized. The outcomes of the research are then assumed to be valid for the whole population.
This is the major advantage of quantitative research.
Operationalization is the process of defining the phenomena in society in such a manner that they
can be measured (using quantitative methods). Some issues are easy to operationalize: age, gender
or income. (divide in groups or numbers). Likert scale is an indication form a scale from 1 to 5 (for
example). Meaning can only be operationalized for quantitative measurement to some extent.
Inevitably, quantitative research leads to (some) reductionism. The best-known quantitative research
method is the survey or questionnaire in which a series of questions is administered to a population,
on paper or via Internet. Answers to the questions are given by the researcher in different options,
the interviewee ticks the appropriate boxes.
Qualitative Research Methods
qualitative research can help to develop existing hypotheses. When the correlations between
phenomena in society are unknown and different meanings or interpretations are possible,
qualitative research can provide rich data on how different phenomena interact. Qualitative research
methods are particularly suited to explore a variety of meanings and explanations or interpretations.
They can provide particularly deep and rich insights and information. Operationalization of meanings
and interpretations before the research is still necessary, so the research methodology is particularly
open to the differences and varieties. The downside of qualitative research methods is that a
researcher can only survey a limited amount of respondents. Such samples are never representative,
therefore generalizing the research findings to a broader population is difficult. By being explicit
about the process of interpreting observations and the point of view from which the interpretation is
done, research is objectified. Qualitative research takes many forms. Audience research can for
instance consist of conducting open interviews with attendants of a certain art project. Usually such
an interview is semi-structured, in that the researcher uses a guideline of the topics that he or she
would like to cover in the interview, but the researcher must let the interviewee determine the
direction of the conversation and follow the meanings and interpretation he or she offers. Focus
groups, where a small group of respondents is interviewed while allowing the different respondents
to react to each other. Participatory observation is a very well-known method in which a researcher,
for instance, takes part in a community, and then writes down the observations of what is
happening. Case studies imply that a researcher provides a rich description of a limited number of
cases by using a variety of written sources, observations and interviews with key figures in an
organization.
, Micro: individuals, objects and face-to-face contacts
he micro level regards the level of individual human agents and objects. It regards face-to-face
contacts (also digital contacts) between individuals. Research on individual art works and the oeuvre
of individual artists is done at the micro level.
Meso: organizations and institutions
The meso level comprises the level of organizations and institutions. It is the level of policy, how
people and organizations interact, based on explicit or implicitly agreed upon courses of action. The
meso level does not regard individual art works but rather takes artistic styles and trends or
disciplines as the focus of the research.
Macro: society and art
The macro level concerns society as a whole (both on a national and international level). It regards
the relation of arts to politics, for instance: 10 how a society views the position of the arts in general
or specific artistic trends and disciplines within it.
The macro, meso and micro levels frequently are combined and they interact with each other. -> A
group tries to find out how differences in theatre organization (the meso level) of different countries
impact what types of theatre are made in a country, who visits them and how they value theatre (the
micro level) and how this impacts the position of theatre in a national culture (the macro level).
Four research domains: production, distribution, reception and contextualization, that together
comprise an art world.
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