ABSTRACT

This chapter explores some of the research tools associated with qualitative and quantitative research. The chapter argues that both approaches can be used by researchers; the choice is dictated by the aim of research and the data to be collected. The strained relationship between qualitative and quantitative research, it is argued, is a thing of the past, and it is widely accepted in the academic community that the two approaches are complementary, providing different perspectives on the key research issues. The chapter will suggest that the two approaches can be used to provide answers and interpretations to the same questions. Indeed, in a single project, a mixed-methods approach is increasingly being adopted, whereby the researcher gathers both qualitative and quantitative data. This is referred to as the third paradigm and it is used by researchers to provide a more comprehensive assessment of a research issue than can be provided by a single research approach. Nevertheless, there is a bias in the literature on events and festivals towards quantitative research that this chapter hopes to redress, by encouraging the adoption of qualitative research, where appropriate. At the centre of any quantitative-qualitative discussion is the philosophical debate that many

qualitative researchers operate under different epistemological assumptions from quantitative researchers. Whilst there may be intense and fundamental disagreement about both philosophical assumptions and the nature of data being collected, this chapter will explore many of these issues and suggest that social science research, especially in the domain of events and festivals, is richer for the wide variety of views and methods that the debate generates. In the context of quantitative methods in the area of events and festival research, this chapter

will explore the use of questionnaires and debate some of the key issues related to problems of sampling, scales and the extent to which various dimensions can be measured. The focus will then move to an examination of qualitative methods of enquiry, and illustrate, through published research, two qualitative tools: interviewing and participant observation. Finally, the chapter will address the challenges and opportunities represented by the adoption of the mixed-methods approach.