TeRRitoria D7.1 - Report on experiences and lessons learned

2017

Solicited diaries/journals are increasingly popular as an innovative qualitative method in the social sciences for better understanding people’s everyday lived experiences. In this paper we create a framework for maintaining rigour while using such diaries. First, we systematically evaluate research papers focusing on the method, drawing on Baxter and Eyles’ (1997) seminal evaluation of rigour in qualitative human geography research. We ascertain that significant improvements could be made to procedures for obtaining and analysing diary content. Second, we develop a framework to encourage rigour in diary research. We test our framework by evaluating research conducted by two of our authors who employed solicited diaries with informal workers in Vietnam. We propose that our analysis and framework can help social scientists improve the rigour of solicited diaries as a research method, and provide a model for enhancing rigour in other emerging qualitative approaches.

The commonplace quantification of humanitarian disasters enables rapid and informed crisis responses. In disaster settings, understanding feelings and perceptions regarding individuals' experiences, livelihood disruptions and coping mechanisms can also be valuable for extending and deepening quantitative insight. This paper explores the potential for diary methods to capture extensive, nuanced data from marginalised groups during a disaster, by drawing upon a study with 100 young diarists (aged 15-29) who produced 1418 diary entries over 4 months. In particular, we share how diary-methods can be designed inclusively, through addressing themes of equitable research partnerships, supporting more vulnerable participants, ensuring data quality, data management, participatory analysis, and budgeting for collaborative research.

Organizing for Societal Grand Challenges, 2022

We illustrate the potential of diaries for advancing scholarship on organization studies and grand challenges. Writing personal diaries is a time-honored and culturally sanctioned way of animating innermost thoughts and feelings, and embodying experiences through self-talk with famous examples, such as the diaries written by Anne Frank, Andy Warhol, or Thomas Mann. However, the use of diaries has long been neglected in organization studies, despite their historical and societal importance. We illustrate how different forms of analyzing diaries enable a "deep analysis of individuals' internal processes and practices" (Radcliffe, 2018) which cannot be gleaned from other sources of data such as interviews and observations. Diaries exist in different forms, such as "unsolicited diaries" and "solicited diaries" and have different purposes. We evaluate how analyzing diaries can be a valuable source to illuminate the innermost thoughts and feelings of people at the forefront of grand challenges. To exemplify our arguments, we draw on diaries written by medical professionals working for Doctors Without Borders as part of our empirical research project conducted in extreme contexts. We show the value of unsolicited diaries in revealing people's thought world that is not apprehensible from other modes of communication, and offer a set of practical guidelines on working with data from diaries. Diaries serve to enrich our methodological toolkit by capturing what people think and feel behind the scenes but may not express nor display in public.

Solicited diaries can be used to delve into otherwise unreachable interpretations of social and physical experiences. Diaries help researchers to understand the embodied and the emotional in human geography. In this paper we develop on the work of multiple disciplines, enhancing the rationale as to why and how to employ diaries, and highlighting the benefits and drawbacks associated with this methodological tool. Notably, we extend the literature related to solicited diaries into the unfamiliar through examples from our research with scientists working in Antarctica who maintained diaries for us. We illustrate the potential for such diaries to elicit meaningful narratives that complement and extend data collected through interviews. Diaries provide timely, in situ space for emotional reactions to and contemplations of the immediate environment, as well as on every day and out of the ordinary events, while interviews provide interviewees with time and distance from the field to offer reflections based on lasting impressions. In particular, when combined, solicited diaries and interviews can substantially enrich investigations of those innately human, yet often elusive, places of the mind – revelatory places – in-between people and the environments that move them.

Nurse Researcher, 2009

The author of this paper started a research diary to provide transparency to her study and to help her clarify thoughts and feelings-as well as to acknowledge factors that may have influenced her analysis. She found it helped in her development as a novice phenomenological nurse researcher through creative and critical thinking. She recommends all novice researchers keep a diary.

Journal of Geography …, 2010

International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 2025

In this article I introduce the digital diary method as a multimodal, participatory qualitative approach for investigating everyday digital practices within digital ethnography. This method enables participants to document their media practices and daily activities over time by creating digital diaries that incorporate written, audiovisual, and creative elements. By encouraging the recording of multimodal data-including text, images, photos, voice recordings, and videos-the method provides rich insights into participants' experiences and emotions. These diaries are later collaboratively reviewed and reflected on with researchers, and they offer a platform for both researchers and research partners to gain fresh insights and deeper understandings of the material discussed. The participatory nature of digital diaries highlights the agency of research partners, who maintain control over what they share and its interpretation, as illustrated through examples from my own research with refugees in Vienna on their transnational care relations. Applied selectively with key research partners, the method provided valuable insights, with participants gaining a deeper understanding of their media practices and care relationships through self-reflection. The integration of online and offline practices within these diaries demonstrates the interconnectedness of digital and lived experiences, challenging the traditional dichotomy between the two. Overall, the digital diary method not only enhances ethnographic research but also serves to explore the evolving role of digital media and its integration into broader social and cultural contexts.

33rd Annual Frontiers in Education, 2003. FIE 2003., 2003

Conference proceedings often present successful research and best cases. This paper presents a case that initially did NOT develop as anticipated and reflections as to why outcomes were different than expected. It also suggests important factors to consider before similar activities are undertaken in the future. The case presented investigates reflective assessments for the module "

2011

The present study aims to explore the effectiveness of qualitative research methods. The qualitative research method has been opted after a thorough literature examination. The concept of triangulation and the process of multi-method qualitative research on error correction and students' motivation were also examined. The results discovered more about the participants as he or she reads their diaries containing their detailed opinions and feelings. Subjectivity is another remarkable feature of diaries for learners to improve their writing skills and to use diverse vocabulary to express their views and emotions. Reviewing the information within a diary helps people to judge their behaviour and others, towards certain events. It was depicted that the triangulation method assists to have a more in-depth understanding of the recorded entries in the diaries by using semi-structured interviews. Both approaches were found to comprise of advantages and disadvantage, where the selection is based on the nature of the study and the understanding of the researcher. The results of the present study help guide the researcher in determining the specific choice of study.