ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the empirical and analytical questions of our research. It draws on the idea of reflective research and discusses the questions of case selection and comparability, as well as the questions of power and interpretation arising from fieldwork, data collection, and comparative analysis. Research journey narratives are used to consider field access and ethical issues, and they produce another layer of research data about the manifestations of QAE. The chapter also reflects on differences in the availability of data from the three countries and the limitations in this regard for a comparative analysis. To compare the dynamics which emerge in the politics of quality in the different contexts, the chapter describes the analytical dimensions the book uses in more depth and discusses the abductive research design, in which theoretical and empirical work are complementary. The conclusion discusses how fieldwork can be used to understand the studied phenomenon.
