Focus Groups – From Qualitative Data Generation to Analysis

Focus groups have become quite fashionable in political science, over the last decade, notably because of the richness of discourse and interactions that they give access to. But the method is more demanding than usually expected. Using focus groups not only requires more resources than other qualitative method; it also implies to make a large series of decisions concerning the
different technical aspects involved from design and organisation to analysis. These many decisions suppose to be very clear about one‟s research objectives.
The course will introduce students to the variety of focus groups‟ uses, in terms of epistemology and research topics. Then the complete process of focus group‟s organisation will be discussed in details – including classical problems like sampling, designing questions and moderation, but also more “down to earth” questions like setting the room, recording, contacting, selecting and rewarding participants etc. Lastly, an important part of the course will be devoted to the analysis: focus group discussions are more complex to analyse than standard face-to-face interviews. A mix of several methods (interpretation, codification and automatic textual analysis) will be suggested

Course leader

Virginie Van Ingelgom Université catholique de Louvain

Target group

advanced students and junior researchers in political science and adjacent disciplines

Course aim

as above