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Longitudinal Qualitative Research Design: Experience Over Time, Stacy M. Carter

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

In this paper I examine time in qualitative researchdesign. I focus on a study design that is almost absent from the literature, inwhich qualitative data are collected repeatedly and prospectively from a cohort of individuals over a long period. I will refer to this design as longitudinal qualitative research, and argue that it carries risks and benefits. It heightens the need for ethical clarity, particularly in respect to repeated participation. Unless the aim is to examine a trajectory of experience, longitudinal design may diminish a study's explanatory power by making the sampling less purposive: commitments to long engagement must be …