QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE MEASUREMENTtime, the workers arrive at common ideas, under-
standings, and actions. It is “less a matter of disem-
bodied mental attitude than a broader set of practices
and repertoires available for empirical investigation”
(Fantasia:14).
To operationalize the construct, Fantasia
describes how he gathered data. He presents them
to illustrate the construct, and explains his thinking
about the data. He describes his specific actions to
collect the data (e.g., he worked in a particular fac-
tory, attended a press conference, and interviewed
people). He also shows us the data in detail (e.g., he
describes specific events that document the con-
struct by showing several maps indicating where
people stood during a confrontation with a foreper-
son, retelling the sequence of events at a factory,
recounting actions by management officials, and
repeating statements that individual workers made).
He gives us a look into his thinking process as he re-
flected and tried to understand his experiences and
developed new ideas drawing on older ideas.Casing.In qualitative research, ideas and evi-
dence are mutually interdependent. This applies
THEORETICAL
LEVELOPERATIONAL
LEVELEMPIRICAL
LEVELTheorize the RelationshipConceptualize by Refining the Working Ideas and ConceptsOperationalize by Forming Concepts from Data and Working IdeasObserve Empirical Conditions and Gather DataMany workers confront a supervisor together
to defend a co-worker. Many make
statements about sticking up for one
another and “we are in this together.”
Many express their loyalty to other factory
workers and say that the managers are
their enemies.Workers have shared feelings and a
strong sense of unity that is in opposition
to a company’s managers and owners.Radical Labor ActionWorkers make personal sacrifices and
engage in extreme collective social
political acts to advance a “just cause”
that they believe will help all workers.Many workers are willing to lose friends,
suffer economic losses, engage in
collective action (e.g., strikes, political
protest), and be arrested for what they
believe is a “just cause.” The “just cause”
involves defending worker rights and
intensely opposing the actions of owners
and managers.Culture of Solidarity [Is a Precondition for]FIGURE 3 Example of the Inductive Measurement Process for the Proposition: Radical Labor
Action Is Likely to Occur Where a Culture of Solidarity Has Been CreatedCasing Developing cases in qualitative research.particularly to case study analysis. Cases are not
given preestablished empirical units or theoretical
categories apart from data; they are defined by data
and theory. By analyzing a situation, the researcher
organizes data and applies ideas simultaneously to
create or specify a case. Making or creating a case,
called casing, brings the data and theory together.
Determining what to treat as a case resolves a ten-
sion or strain between what the researcher observes
and his or her ideas about it. “Casing, viewed as a
methodological step, can occur at any phase of
the research process, but occurs especially at the
beginning of the project and at the end” (Ragin,
1992b:218).RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY
All of us as researchers want reliability and valid-
ity, which are central concerns in all measurement.
Both connect measures to constructs. It is not