Dear Paul M.W. Hackett,

Computer-assisted data analysis is usually associated with the analysis of aggregate data according to the tenets of logical positivism. But there are more than twenty computer programs designed to assist researchers analyzing ethnographic data, and these programs may be used by researchers with a variety of epistemological orientations.

Some computer-assisted qualitative data analysis (CAQDA) programs automate analysis procedures that have been used by generations of ethnographers. Others open up new directions through the use of linked coding schemes, hypertext, and case-based hypothesis testing.

Ethnographers interested in computer assistance must acquaint themselves with the variety of capabilities and programs available because no program dominates the CAQDA field.

Students can gain mastery in at least one qualitative data analysis software package (i.e., QSR Nvivo, MaxQDA, Dedoose), strategies, conduct cultural discourse analysis, apply traits an demographics to relevant sources, and learn to query coded datasets in order to build theoretical models from such data.

List of Ethnographic analysis software:

I hope I have answered your question.

With Best Wishes,

Samir G. Pandya

Samir G. Pandya provides a long list of possible options with multiple purposes. I believe the most common usage would be for entering and coding field notes. For that purpose, the major qualitative data analysis programs would all offer essentially equivalent functions, but would implement them in different ways. so you might look at online tutorials for: NVivo, MAXQDA, and ATLAS.ti.

Thank you for such a comprehensive list Samir. Do you have a preference?

David and Samir, do you think the analyses produced by hand are significantly different to those produced using software?

I think the main difference is that it makes easier to search through your coding, but basically the coding itself is the same kind of marking up your data that you would do by hand.