Invitation to the 13^th Czecho-Slovak international conference

QUALITATIVE APPROACHES AND METHODS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES:

"PEN and PAPER vs. COMPUTER?"

20.-21.1. 2014, Faculty of Health and Social Studies, University of South Bohemia
in České Budějovice, Czech Republic

Qualitative researcher is no longer a weird character conducting his/her research with pen and pencil, later surrounded by millions of paper notes in a murky room. Today, s/he is equipped with recording machines, cameras, laptops with high-tech software, and with other devices formerly associated with "hard" sciences. In qualitative research, we have been using technical and mathematical gadgets not only to collect data, but also to analyse them. In academic articles, remarks such as "interviews were recorded", "software ´XY´ was used to transcribe the interviews", or "software ´YZ´ was used to analyse the data" often appear. But what do these remarks actually mean?

The theme for the upcoming conference is the penetration of technical and mathematical instruments into the qualitative research in social sciences and humanities. Which instruments and methods do you use? Do they prove helpful for your research? Or did they prove not to be helpful at all? Is there a difference between what you perceive the respondent tells you, and what has been caught on a recording machine or camera? Is there any difference between "paper" analysis and that which utilizes modern technologies? Does technological interface play any role in the process of data collection/analysis? Does an interpretation of an ultrasound scan belong more to a qualitative, or a quantitative research?

Social sciences and humanities include many areas of inquiry – from philosophy, psychology, sociology, anthropology … to philology, nursing and medicine. Each of these areas makes use of their own technical and mathematical tools, while being an area for conducting qualitative research. Therefore we welcome specialists from all social sciences and humanities who would like to share their experience, opinions, enthusiasm and disillusions, from the intersection of "hard" and "soft" methods.

As usual, we also welcome those papers that may not fit our agenda, yet illustrate developments and failures of qualitative research projects.

Conference organized by

Faculty of Health and Social Studies, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice

and civic association Adam Czech Republic

with the collaboration of

Faculty of Theology, University of South Bohemia

Philosophical Faculty, Palacký University Olomouc

Department of Addictology, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague

Institute for Research in Social Communication, Slovak Academy of Sciences

Preliminary program

Confirmed Invited lectures:

Doing qualitative research doesn´t mean not doing mathematics – Zdeněk Půlpán, University of Hradec Králové

Mental models – interactive platform for working with qualitative variables – Jan Voráček, College of Polytechnics Jihlava

Quality evaluation of embryos in assisted reproduction: embryoscop vs. embryologist – David Rumpík, chair of the assisted reproduction department, Czech Gynecological and Obstretrical Society

How little is needed to get reassured about our interpretation – Aleš Neusar, Department of psychology, Palacký University Olomouc

Fuzzy – a promising approach, or a bad name in the context of psychology? – Jan Stoklasa, Department of Mathematical Analysis and Applications of Mathematics, Palacký University Olomouc

Does the observer belong to physics?   Prof. RNDr. Jan Novotný, CSc., Masarykova univerzita, Brno

Social networks as Matrix enviroments of segregation and as new forma of sensorial experiences. Francesco Bollorino, MD, Università di Genova

And other invited speakers from the fields of physics, philosophy, law, mathematics and linguistics.

Confirmed workshops:

Questionnaire for qualitative research – Zdeněk Půlpán, University of Hradec Králové

Qualitative analysis of Ingmar Bergman´s The Seventh Seal using simple tools from Miles and Huberman – Michal Miovský, Department of Addictology, Charles University in Prague

Unsuspected potential of ATLAS.ti 7 versus the persisting need of a human brain in qualitative data analysis – Miroslav Charvát, Palacký University Olomouc

Know your gatekeeper: Writing for British academic journals – Catriona Menzies, Adam Česká Republika

Confirmed mini-symposia:

Ways of analysing the uses of knowledge in the process of decision making – organized by Institute of Public Policy and Economics, FSEV UK in Bratislava)

Expression and expressivity - organized by the Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences

Anti-anthropology – organized by the Institute of anthropology, PřF MU in Brno

Language

Czech, Slovak and English are official conference languages. Simultaneous translation into English provided.

Social programme:

There is the excursion to the Budvar (the original Budweiser) brewery planned on 20.1.2013 in the evening. There, we will study how modern technologies affect the quality of beer. The "data" will be then continuously analysed until early morning hours in the Beer Cellar located directly in the brewery Budvar, with the assistance of the jazz trio "String trio J,A.J.".  

Publications:

Partners of the conference are journals "Human Affairs: Postdisciplinary Humanities & Social Sciences", "Central European Journal of Public Policy" and "Anthropologia Integra". The editors will contact the authors of excellent papers with the offer to get their paper published.

 Contact person:

Markéta Sudová, ZSF JU. Email: canis.ludens@seznam.cz

We thank to Michaela Žemličková for kindly provided illustration.  

Detailed information can be found here: http://www.zsf.jcu.cz/cs/QAKonference2014/