Introduction: Common Threads among Techniques of Data Analysis

In deciding the mix of topics to include in this Handbook, we wanted to provide a wide range of analytic options suited to many different research questions and different data structures. An early decision was to include both ‘quantitative’ and ‘qualitative’ techniques in a single volume. Within the current research environment, practitioners can hardly fail to notice the schism that exists between camps of qualitative and quantitative researchers. For some, this division is fundamental, leading them to pay little attention to developments in the ‘other’ camp. Certainly the assumption has been that practitioners of these different approaches have so little in common that any text on data analysis must choose between the two approaches rather than include ...