Geo-Methods

Geography 5161, Spring 2010

Amanda Kass
 WHAT IS CODING?
Coding is analysis (Miles & Huberman 1994, 56).

Coding, involves taking text data or pictures gathered

during data collection, segmenting sentences (or paragraphs)
or images into categories, and labeling those categories with
a term (Creswell 2009, 186).

It is important to note the different epistemology here from

many quantitative projects. What is generally of interest is
not so much the codes as the text they denote, not how often
they occur but what is in them (Crang 1997, 188).
 WHY CODE?
Minimize data overload

Some types of computer software can aid in

content analysis

Useful in identifying themes and patterns

Can be used with many other methods

ethnography, interviews, surveys, discourse analysis, focus groups
 HOW AND WHEN TO
CODE?

When do you develop your codes?

A priori, predefined, predetermined
Inductive, post-defined
Combination, accounting-scheme guide

When do you code?

Hand-coding versus Computer software

 EXAMPLE & TYPES OF
CODES
Sample field note: I asked him what the need for the new program
was, and he responded that the students coming into 9th grade were two
years below grade level and that the old curriculum was ineffective. Through
testingit was determined that students were growing academically only 5
or 6 months during the 10-month school year.

Descriptive Code: MOT = Motivation

Interpretive Code: PUB-MOT = Public Motivation

(Miles & Huberman 1994, 57)

 EXAMPLE & TYPES OF
CODES
Pattern Codes: Inferential and Explanatory. Used when a
segment of field notes illustrates an emergent leitmotiv or
pattern that you have discerned in local events and
relationships.

Analogous to the cluster-analytic and factor-analytic devices

used in statistical analysis.

Sample Codes:
LM = Leitmotiv
PATT = Pattern
TH = Theme
CL = Casual Link
(Miles & Huberman 1994, 57 & 69)
QUALITATIVE COMPUTER
SOFTWARE
MAXqda The Art of Text Analysis

Atlas.ti - Tame your Data. Go wild with your research

QSR NVivo Organize. Analyze. Visualize. Report.

HyperRESEARCH Simply Powerful Tools for

Qualitative Analysis

Kwalitan
 DOWNSIDES & WEAKNESSES

Laborious and time-consuming (Creswell 2009, 188).

Coding is hard, obsessive work (Miles & Huberman 1994,

65).

For manual (or hand) coding you may have to revise codes
or codebook numerous times.

Computer software can be expensive and time-consuming to

learn.
 THEORETICAL DEBATES

Post-structuralism:
Coding is concerned with interpretation and
representation of data. Post-structuralism is
concerned with, struggles over representation
(Johnston and Sidaway 2004, 281).

Representations (be it a newspaper, photograph,

or diary) are never neutral nor is the researcher
neutral in analyzing the meaning of a text;
representations are always tied up with power.
THEORETICAL DEBATES
Discourse: A specific series of representations
and practices through which meanings are
produced, identities constituted, social
relations established, and political and ethical
outcomes made more possible (Gregory et al. 2009, 166).

Discourse Analysis
Formal Method vs. Critical Interpretative Approach
Primary concern: formal components & properties of
linguistic representations vs. social practices made
possible by language.
(Gregory et al. 2009, 167).
THEORETICAL DEBATES
Feminist Geography
Great care is needed when developing a
coding scheme because rigid categorization
is a major weakness (Kwan 2002, 164).

Social differentiation should be defined by

using many dimensions (Kwan 2002, 164).
REFERENCE LIST
Baker, Paul. 2006. Using corpora in discourse analysis. Continuum Discourse Series, ed.
Ken Hyland. New York: Continuum.
Crang, Mike. 1997. Analyzing qualitative materials. In Methods in human geography: A
guide for students doing a research project, eds. Robin Flowerdew and David
Martin, 183-196. Essex, England: Longman.
Creswell, John W. 2009. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods
approaches. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Gregory, Derek; Johnston, Ron; Pratt, Geraldine; Watts, Michael J. and Sarah Whatmore,
eds. 2009. The dictionary of human geography. 5th ed. Malden, MA: Wiley-
Blackwell.
Kwan, Mei-Po. 2002. Quantitative methods and feminist geographic research. In Feminist
geography in practice: Research and methods, ed. Pamela Moss, 160-173.
Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.
Johnston, R. J. and J. D. Sidaway. 2004. Geography & Geographers: Anglo-American
human geography since 1945. 6th ed. New York: Oxford University Press.
Miles, Matthew B. and A. Michael Huberman. 1994. An expanded sourcebook: Qualitative
data analysis. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.