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The authors contend that qualitative research should be scrutinized for its usefulness in the discovery of substantive theory. They try to present generic elements of the process of generating substantive theory from qualitative data, and consider how the researcher collects and analyzes qualitative data, max imizes the theory's credibility, puts trust in his theory, and conveys the theory to others. Drs. Glaser and Strauss are affiliated with the University of California Medical Center in San Francisco.

In sociological research on sport exists a predominance of questionnaire and quantifying methods, inquiry techniques aimed at establishing representative fea tures. Not enough attention is paid to the question whether the method adopted is at all in accordance with the questions asked and the subject matter. If based on the methodology of symbolical interactionism this methodology deals with the entire course of research and if, in accordance with Merton and Kendall (1955), data is to present not only the reaction to a situation about which questions are asked, but should rather show the empirical reality of "genuine life", then attention should be also paid to phenomenological connections. It is necessary above all to arrange those connections in a certain order, according to their significance, so that the social relations, which determine processes of social life, as one process follows the other and one influences the other, would become interrelated. Taken into account in this respect should be the fact that the responses, such as opinions, attitudes and motivations arise within social relations and their sense depends exclusively on these relations. This dependence on the context requires, of course, procedures of interpretation in methodology, because in general interviews of in dividuals are not in accordance with reality which requires dialogue. This is true especially when one examines the mode of life of certain groups of people, because one should take into account the fact that identities, according to Meads, take shape as a result of social processes and depict the individual reflections of organized relations of human exchange of experience and behavioural patterns. On the basis of an empirical analysis of the formation of identity in the case of top-class women athletes in the F.R.G. evidence is provided of the fact that qualitative methods (sociobiographical methods, in-depth interviews) and inductive procedures are more to the point for this type of subject matter than deductive research and quantifying methods.

Formalization of qualitative research (that is, case study or ethnographic research) is a major adaptation to the policy world that includes codification of research questions before fieldwork starts, standardization of data collection procedures through semistruc tured interviews, and reduction of verbal data to categories. The histories offive multisite, qualitative policy studies were examined to see how much variation in formalization reflected the technical requirements of the research problem, the demands of the federal client, and the preferences of the project team and its professional network. The research team has the greatest influence although the client sets broad limits on what is possible.

Qualitative Sozialforschung läßt sich in allen Themenbereichen der empirischen Sozialwissenschaften anwenden, ihre Verfahren sind jedoch auffallend wenig erforscht. Der Aufsatz will die Notwendigkeit einer qualitativen Methodologie begründen und zeigen, welchen Platz die qualitative Sozialforschung im Gesamtbereich der Sozialforschung einnimmt, welchen methodischen Regeln sie unterworfen ist und welche Besonderheiten sie aufweist. Alle sozialwissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisstrategien sind aus Alltagstechniken entwickelt. Aus der These von der "Einheit der Methoden" läßt sich ableiten, daß alle Verfahren in einer bestimmten, erforschbaren Beziehung zueinanderstehen. Ziel der qualitativen Verfahren ist die systematische Entdeckung von Relationen und Strukturen. Im Unterschied zu den quantitativen Verfahren zielen sie auf Gemeinsamkeiten, nicht auf Differenzen. Für das Vorgehen der qualitativen Forschung formuliert der Autor vier Regeln: 1. Das Vorverständnis über den Untersuchungsgegenstand soll als vorläufig angesehen werden und mit neuen, nicht kongruenten Informationen überwunden werden. 2. Der Gegenstand der Untersuchung ist vorläufig, er ist erst nach Abschluß des Findungsprozesses ganz bekannt. 3. Der Gegenstand soll von "allen" Seiten angegangen werden. 4. Die Daten werden auf Gemeinsamkeiten hin analysiert. Zur Charakterisierung des Analyseprozesses diskutiert der Autor vier Bereiche der qualitativen Forschung: das Dialogkonzept, die Zirkularität, die Totalität und den Objektivitätsbegriff. Die Forderung intersubjektiver Nachprüfbarkeit der Ergebnisse besteht bei der qualitativen Sozialforschung in gleicher Weise wie bei der quantitativen. Unterschiede bestehen in Bezug auf Verläßlichkeit und Gültigkeit der Ergebnisse und den Gültigkeitsbereich. (KA)

This article describes the ways in which qualitative methods have been viewed relative to evaluation research. The topics included in the bibliography cover a broad area including the changing climate in evaluation research, the philosophical and conceptual background behind this approach to research, actual evaluation efforts which employed qualitative methods, the use of various data gathering techniques, and how one "makes sense" of these data. It is hoped that the bibliography will serve as a resource to those who choose to use such procedures in their evaluation research as well as testimony to the feasibility and utility qualitative methods offers evaluation researchers and policy makers.