Qualitative naturalistic research

Abstract

Qualitative research is one of the three methodological paradigms of research, the other two being quantitative and mixed methods. The term qualitative research denotes approaches to empirical investigations involving the collection, analysis and presentation of data in narrative form. Very broadly, qualitative research involves mainly exploratory, naturalistic inquiry within real-life settings to gather and analyze non-numerical data, in order to understand individuals’ social reality comprehensively, i.e., to explore the ‘whats’, ‘hows’, and ‘whys’ of social phenomena. This entry focuses specifically on empirical qualitative research in Translation Studies, i.e., qualitative inquiry undertaken in naturalistic settings. In Translation Studies (TS), qualitative research explores translators’ behaviours, perceptions, experiences, processes, and so on to understand in-depth how translations are produced, how translators perform their tasks, their motivations, emotions, how they relate with their texts, tools, colleagues, etc. Core features of qualitative research are its subjective, interpretive and inductive nature, whereas its main caveats include lack of generalisation, subjectivity, and observer/interviewer bias and effect.