ABSTRACT
The fourth chapter concerns itself with the level of strategy, or overall design level, which builds a layer “on top” of the Crafting Methods framework. In short, this part of the research design model I propose consists of three elements: collection, structure, and time.
Collection means, quite literally, a collection of research methods: different activities, in principle non-hierarchical and based solely on the research subject and questions as framed in the preparation. Structure leads towards a certain ordering of the collection: how information travels through a research process, which methods are carried out in which order, and the different kinds of structure that the data can have. The element of Time goes further than scheduling and planning and is motivated, instead, by content as well as the notion of spending time with things or persons – entities. How much time do we want/are we ready to give?
The chapter closes with a discussion of how the three elements are entangled, and how the two layers of method (Chapter 3) and strategy (this chapter) relate.
