Qualitative Research Methods

I remain in awe of the quantitative methods simply because, as a science high school student fed up with math and science subjects, I decided to tune out when we were discussing linear algebra and number theory. Thus, my awe is largely due an utter lack of comprehension. Nevertheless, I am one of those who do not need to be convinced of the virtues of the qualitative methods. If social science is a quest for understanding, rather than abstract, immutable laws, then these methods are, in fact, superior in many cases as I saw in Darin Weinberg's collection of articles.

I have seen, and attempted to read without much success, difficult quantitative research that let us know more and more about less and less. And I have read articles in the collection that attack subjects not particularly suited for quantitative methods. An article on refusing invited applause as a rhetorical technique was interesting for a debater like me, but also demonstrated the value of interpretation. There are techniques to break down a speech into component parts by the second, but, ultimately, to say that applause was invited and then refused, is a qualitative judgment.