You will be redirected to OpenEdition Search. With such a singular subject of study, whether the research is quantitative or qualitative, synthetic or systemic, retrospective or instantaneous, observation is hampered by the subjective nature of the facts and discourses it sets out to record and understand. In the first place, the way respondents perceive the data collection can influence their responses, especially with long, formalized data gathering operations like those used for collecting quantitative event histories.
This first chapter will take stock of the use of perceptual elements for locating events in time and will present in a wider view the avenues to be explored with regard to observation and analysis.
It points out that, beyond the combination of qualitative and quantitative, these perceptual elements cannot be addressed by an exclusively qualitative investigation or analysis. The chapter also addresses the importance of collecting and making quantitative use of perceptual elements beyond issues of temporality.
Light is shed both by comparing modes of observation interview and questionnaire and by including two types of question in the same questionnaire 1.
This shows how introducing perceptions makes it possible to re-examine prevailing statistical categories and also improve them. In particular, considering states leads one to discuss the crossing of thresholds, since it proves crucial to identify when a state began and when it ended at what point was that state achieved?
