Challenges for Qualitative Inquiry as a Global Endeavor: Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

Understanding qualitative inquiry as a global endeavor leads to several challenges. First, we still live in different worlds of qualitative research—There are local traditions with limited exchanges. This has to do not only with language barriers but also with political and scientific contexts, in which research is embedded. These differences complicate the globalization of qualitative inquiry. Second, research issues become increasingly globalized: People are migrating into other cultures and bring along their cultural backgrounds and understandings—of social services, for example. If we want to study encounters of migrating people with the local social systems, we face a diversity of experiences and values. Third, for understanding such an encounter from both sides, we may need to adapt our methods or even need a triangulation of methods (e.g., biographic interviews, expert interviews, and ethnographies). In this special issue, challenges like these three will be discussed from different angles.