Erynn Masi de Casanova, chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Cincinnati, opened the FCSH Conversations series of ESPOL’s Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (FCSH) on October 20 with the workshop “Designing Qualitative Social Research.”
During the session, the expert explained that social research is conducted to uncover patterns of everyday life that sometimes go unnoticed. “We cannot change a society or a phenomenon that we do not understand,” she said, stressing that presenting these patterns with concrete data is more effective than telling anecdotes. She gave a presentation on recommended tools for qualitative research, such as individual and group interviews, verbal surveys, document analysis, and participant observation, and emphasized that the choice of method depends on the research question.
The workshop also covered key aspects of fieldwork: designing the interview guide, informed consent, the difference between confidentiality and anonymity, social desirability bias, and the criteria for assessing the quality of qualitative research. With this activity, the FCSH opens a space for dialogue with scholars and the polytechnic community, as a baseline for questioning the futures we are building through innovation, community-based social interventions, and technology, as well as for discussing other ethical, methodological, and epistemological issues in building science that focuses on society.
The FCSH Conversations series will continue in November with the topic “How Do We Get to Know Others? Ethics, Power, and Responsibility in Social Research,” led by Mathias Pécot, a researcher at the FCSH and member of ESPOL’s research ethics committee.
