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The article discusses judicial activism in the light of research into the attitudes of English judges, and a comparator group of US judges, towards judicial selection, judicial training and sentencing practice. Noting commonalities and shared perspectives, it is argued that the findings indicate enduring features of occupational culture that originate in relations within the legal workgroup and the practical craft of judging. Against the context of highly conventional attitudes, a conservative form of judicial activism is found in respect of resistance to legislative and policy innovation.

The article argues that `moderate postmodernism' can in certain respects be reconciled with a methodological practice, triangulation, that is based on mainstream methodological foundations. A connection is made between moderate postmodernism and triangulation's orientation to multiple methods. The evolution of social science approaches to triangulation towards a position less concerned with convergent validation and more concerned with using multiple methods to create greater analytic density and conceptual richness facilitates a conciliation between postmodernism and triangulation. The argument is illustrated by contemporary empirical examples.

Qualitative research is increasingly important in policy-related and applied work, as well as in academic work. Grid and high-performance computing (HPC) technologies promise significant potential returns for qualitative researchers. Tagged cyber-research in the United States and e-social science in the United Kingdom (and e-research in general), the application of HPC technologies can enhance the scope, depth, and rigor of qualitative inquiry by enabling new data-handling capacities and analytic procedures; new support for work with colleagues based elsewhere; and new facilities to archive, curate, and exploit the many kinds of data that qualitative researchers use. From these resources flow new challenges to conventions of privacy and research ethics, data integrity and data protection, and the relations between scientific communities and society. Based on a survey, individual interviews, and group discussions, involving qualitative researchers and computer scientists, this article scans existing applications of grid and HPC technologies to qualitative research; indicates potential applications; and identifies associated ethical, practical, and technological challenges.

The article examines the conduct of videotaped interviews between suspected victims of child sexual abuse and police officers and social workers investigating the allegation. It assesses the present conduct of the interviews and the place of children's testimony in contemporary law, and is illustrated by several extracts from transcripts of interviews with suspected child victims. In a field dominated by psychological approaches to interview design and analysis, it is argued that sociology has a worthwhile contribution to make, with clear consequences for investigators' understandings of children's evidence.

'Qualitative Daten bieten reichhaltige Einsichten in die soziale Welt, sei es in alleiniger Anwendung oder im Tandem mit statistischer Analyse. Allerdings ist die Erhebung und Auswertung qualitativer Daten mit hohen Kosten verbunden. Ferner ist allgemein bekannt, dass nur ein Teil der so aufwändig erhobenen Daten letztlich Gegenstand der Auswertung und Veröffentlichung wird. Die Sekundäranalyse ist in der quantitativen Forschung bereits eine gut etablierte Methode und gewinnt auch für die Anwendung auf qualitative Daten an Wertschätzung. Eine besondere Rolle spielt sie im Zusammenhang mit Forschung zu sensiblen Themen und/oder schwer zugänglichen Populationen, wie in dem vorliegenden Beispiel erläutert wird. Dieser Artikel leistet einen Beitrag zur Diskussion des Potenzials und der Grenzen der Sekundäranalyse qualitativer Daten, indem er die Ergebnisse einer Sekundäranalyse einer klassischen Studie zur Soziologie des Gefängnislebens - Cohen und Taylors Forschung zu Langzeit-Inhaftierung von Männern in Hochsicherheitsverwahrung - berichtet. Auf der Grundlage der Nutzung archivierter Daten der Originalstudie betrachtet der Beitrag Cohen und Taylors Originalanalyse erneut und zeigt Unterstützung für eine alternative Konzeptionalisierung. Unter den diskutierten methodologischen Aspekten befinden sich die Wiederherstellung des Kontextes der originären Feldarbeit sowie die Rolle der Sekundäranalyse innerhalb eines kumulativen Ansatzes von Wissensproduktion.' (Autorenreferat)