Evaluating Qualitative Research in Social Geography: Establishing ‘Rigour’ in Interview Analysis

Authors

Jamie Baxter, University of Western Ontario
John Eyles, McMaster University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-1997

Volume

22

Issue

4

Journal

Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers

First Page

505

Last Page

525

URL with Digital Object Identifier

DOI: 10.1111/j.0020-2754.1997.00505.x

Abstract

A review of 31 empirical and eighteen substantive papers by qualitative social geographers mainly using in-depth interviews reveals little explicit reference to the principle(s) adopted to enhance ‘rigour’ and to ensure meaningful inference. Given the modest explicit discussion of evaluative criteria in these papers, a scheme from evaluation research itself is critically reviewed. A set of evaluation questions derived from this review and their application to an empirical piece of qualitative work frame an argument for a general set of criteria rather than rigid rules for assessing qualitative work. Such criteria can serve as anchor points for qualitative evaluation.