Quelle(s) stratégie(s) adopter pour sélectionner des cas dans une recherche qualitative ? Illustration à partir d’une recherche comparative sur les changements dans la structure du pouvoir exécutif en Equateur

What strategies should be adopted to select cases in a qualitative research ? Illustration from a comparative study on the changes in the structure of the executive branch in Ecuador. In a qualitative research design – particularly a comparative one - case selection is undoubtedly one of the most critical issues. The literature proposes a series of individual selection strategies, but in practice, researchers use them in combination. This discrepancy between theory and practice motivated us to propose a sequential combination of qualitative techniques for case selection that meet four objectives: to achieve variation in outcome, to respect the diversity of the set, to highlight the different degrees of a continuum, and to highlight the substantial importance of each case. The process was carried out in two stages: first, a pre-selection made directly by the researcher, and second the selection itself, carried out with the participation of experts by means of the Delphi method. The empirical basis of the proposal is the design of a comparative research on changes in the structure of executive power in Ecuador during the three presidential terms of Rafael Correa Delgado (2007–2009, 2009–2013, 2013–2017).

Shall WeChat? Switching between online and offline ethnography

Drawing on the ethnographic work conducted inside the digital platform WeChat, this article contributes to the ongoing discussion about the multi-sited ethnographic tools and the digital methods available for investigating virtual worlds and online practices. It analyses the communications, interactions, sociality, and economic activities produced on the application WeChat by Chinese migrant women, together with the same practices constructed offline in Taiwan. Taking a close look at the offline context from which these digital practices are generated, the article shows that when studying online practices, it is essential to understand what corresponds to them in the offline worlds. By updating the four Goffmanian interactionist fieldwork sequences, this research provides some reflections on the necessity to mix and merge online and offline ethnographic techniques in order to apprehend the new practices and scales of interaction at the crossroads where online and offline social spaces intersect. Virtual ethnography cannot be exclusive. Rather, it needs to be designed and performed in dialogue with ‘physical’ observations.

When marginalized subjects map their city: Counter-mapping experiments with drug users in some German and French neighborhoods

This article aims to contribute to the social science discussion on urban policies and the integration (or exclusion) of the perspectives of marginalized groups by asking the question: If there were to be exhaustive urban planning relating to drug issues, what role should drug users play in the planning process? Our answer involves the use of a set of two complementary qualitative cartographic methods which allow us to focus on the inclusion of the voices of marginalized groups. This article is based on methodological experimentation in different French and German cities without aiming at a comparison. The article exposes and discusses firstly an individual interview method called ‘Emotional Mapping’, and secondly a participatory mapping workshop called ‘Ideal City Mapping’. The output of this project has been a web of visual and textual documents, in the form of reports, papers, articles and events such as a travelling exhibition, with the aim of engaging in public discussions with various key players.

A database about the Members of European Parliament: Contributions and limitations of automated data collection in the study of European political elites

Over the past 25 years, a field of research concerning the careers of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) has developed. Drawing on a massive amount of accessible open data, we have assembled an updated database including all MEPs from 1979 to September 2019. In this note, we describe the data collection processes and the construction of the database. Then, we propose an application concerning the turnover at the EP following the 2019 European elections. The longitudinal perspective provided by the database allows us to describe this turnover, which is important, but varies greatly according to nationality and political group, and does not fundamentally alter the division of parliamentary power. Finally, we identify some limitations: the lack of data in MEP profiles and difficulties both in the comparison between people from 27 countries and the comparison over a long period (1979–2019). As a result, the article shows that automated data collection can be very useful. However, in the case of individuals, as MEPs, it should be seen as a complementary source to other sources.

Sources et données pour l’analyse des réseaux sociaux

Sources and data for social network analysis. Social network analysis (SNA) is becoming more and more widespread in several scientific disciplines as a method for processing social, economic, geographic, historical, digital, etc. data. Visualizations of graphs, communities and other ties are multiplying. However, there is a risk that SNA users may lose sight of the conditions under which their data are produced and thereby over-interpret or under-interpret the results. This article provides a guide to the different types of sources of network data, and the pitfalls and choices encountered in the process of producing network data. The first part provides an overview of these pitfalls and choices, and the second part focuses on the specifics of each source of data. Based on the authors’ experience in training network researchers, the article proposes a review of controlled ways of producing network data from this array of sources.