Suchergebnisse

Seit den Anfängen der empirischen Sozialforschung ist das Verhältnis zwischen der quantitativen und der qualitativen Sozialforschung spannungsreich, von wechselseitiger Kritik und Abgrenzung gekennzeichnet. Der Autor diskutiert die wesentlichen Aspekte dieser Debatte und arbeitet ein integratives methodologisches Programm heraus.

Growing financial problems of the German System of public long term care insurance have stimulated cost cutting and rationalisation in the care home industry. The resulting decline of care standards has fuelled government policies to expand control procedures. Thereby concepts drawn from market research like "consumer satisfaction" play a prominent role. Results from an empirical study are presented which show that feelings of personal dependency and fear from being sanctioned prevent care home residents from giving adequate answers in standardised questionnaires developed to measure consumer satisfaction. Consequently, the application of such instruments may easily lead to the construction of Potemkin villages pretending a high quality of care and an overall satisfaction of care home residents.

Growing financial problems of the German System of public long term care insurance have stimulated cost cutting & rationalisation in the care home industry. The resulting decline of care standards has fuelled government policies to expand control procedures. Thereby concepts drawn from market research like "consumer satisfaction" play a prominent role. Results from an empirical study are presented which show that feelings of personal dependency & fear from being sanctioned prevent care home residents from giving adequate answers in standardised questionnaires developed to measure consumer satisfaction. Consequently, the application of such instruments may easily lead to the construction of Potemkin villages pretending a high quality of care & an overall satisfaction of care home residents. Adapted from the source document.

Wachsende Finanzierungsprobleme der Langzeit-Pflegeversicherung in Deutschland haben zu Rationalisierung und Kostensenkung in den Pflegeheimen geführt. Die Folge war ein Rückgang der Pflegestandards, der staatliche Kontrolle provoziert hat. Marktkonzepte wie "Kundenorientierung" nahmen nun eine wichtigen Platz ein. Der Verfasser legt Ergebnisse einer empirischen Studie vor, die zeigen, dass Abhängigkeitsgefühl und Angst vor Sanktionen Pflegeheimbewohner von einer adäquaten Beantwortung von Fragen abhält, mit denen Kundenzufriedenheit gemessen werden soll. Daher kann die Anwendung solcher Forschungsinstrumente leicht zu Potemkinschen Dörfern führen und eine hohe Pflegequalität und eine Zufriedenheit der Pflegeheimbewohner vorspiegeln. (ICEÜbers)

'Since the late 1960s Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss, developers of the methodology of 'grounded theory' have made several attempts to explicate, clarify and reconceptualise some of the basic tenets of their methodological approach. Diverging concepts and understandings of grounded theory have arisen from these attempts which have led to a split between its founders. Much of the explication and reworking of grounded theory surrounds the relation between data and theory and the role of previous theoretical assumptions. The book which initially established the popularity of Glaser's and Strauss' methodological ideas, 'The discovery of grounded theory', contains two conflicting understandings of the relation between data and theory - the concept of 'emergence' on the one hand and the concept of 'theoretical sensitivity' on the other hand. Much of the later developments of grounded theory can be seen as attempts to reconcile these prima facie diverging concepts. Thereby Glaser recommends to draw on a variety of 'coding families' while Strauss proposes the use of a general theory of action to build an axis for an emerging theory. This paper first summarises the most important developments within 'grounded theory' concerning the understanding of the relation between empirical data and theoretical statements. Thereby special emphasis will be laid on differences between Glaser's and Strauss' concepts and on Glaser's current critique that the concepts of 'coding paradigm' and 'axial coding' described by Strauss and Juliet Corbin lead to the 'forcing' of data. It will be argued that Glaser's critique points out some existing weaknesses of Strauss' concepts but vastly exaggerates the risks of the Straussian approach. A main argument of this paper is that basic problems of empirically grounded theory construction can be treated much more effectively if one draws on certain results of contemporary philosophical and epistemological discussions and on widely accepted concepts developed in such debates. This especially refers to the critique of naive empiricism, to the concept of hypothetical or abductive inference, to the concept of empirical content or falsifiability of statements and to the concept of corroboration.' (author's abstract)|