Representativeness -- NUS Sociology Honours

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Subject: Representativeness

Author:
Tan Ern Ser

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Date Posted: 17:42:44 01/21/02 Mon
Author Host/IP: molten-ext.nus.edu.sg/137.132.3.10

Basically, what I'm saying is that if you are dealing with a small, nonrandom sample, it does NOT make sense to argue statistically. Rather, you should mobilize the best of qualitative methods as taught by, say, Aileen Toohey and Nirmala PuruShotam.

I recall reading an article written by Mandelbaum on Gandhi. His article was based on N=1 (Gandhi's), but he did a superb job analysing the society and history of the South Asian sub-continent (Pakistan and Bangladesh were nonexistent then). His was a good sociological piece which contains no numbers.

In regard to number of cases, I know of at least two ways to approach it: (1) Think of the range of people you need to talk to. N would then be the number that will allow you to cover this range. (2) From a grounded theory perspective, N is when your data reach a saturation point, when an extra case does not yield anything new.

Finally, when in doubt, speak to your supervisor rightaway.

All the best.

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