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Network Ecologies

Data Visualization in qualitative research

Data visualization cannot be reduced to any form or content. Nevertheless the state of the art of visualization tools in research (mostly in an academic environment) can be broadly summarized by their output conditions, namely ‘static’, ‘interactive,’ and ‘dynamic’. [6] Static visualization refers to visuals like graphs and infographics [7], interactive visualizations are, for example, network views and relational data displays, [8] and dynamic visualizations can be found in interactive timelines and animations [9].

Recently, there have been other researcher who also think in the direction of qualitative data analysis and data visualization. Three prominent examples are

Maximilian Schich and Nuria Rodríguez Ortega are connecting the arts and humanities (with a focus in art history) to network visualization [10] of human and non-human entities based on actor-network theory. “ANT is a distinctive approach to social theory and research, which originated in the field of science studies. Developed within Science and Technology Studies (STS) […], it can more technically be described as a material-semiotic method. ANT tries to explain how material-semiotic networks come together to act as a whole.” [11]
Bruno Latour and the MediaLab at Science Po developed a tool for the analysis of ANT: “ANTA or Actor Network Text Analyzer is a piece of software developed by the Sciences Po Medialab to analyses medium-size text corpora, by extracting the expressions they contained in a set of texts and drawing a network of the occurrence of such expressions in the texts.” [12] The network view is specifically developed for the tagging and visualization of material objects and semiotic concepts that ANT is trying to trace.
Phillips Leifeld developed a Java software with a similar approach in network visualization, which nevertheless is specifically developed for the method Discourse Analysis: “Discourse Network Analyzer is a qualitative content analysis tool with network export facilities. You import text files and annotate statements that persons or organizations make, and the program will return network matrices of actors connected by shared concepts.” [13]

All three examples show the development and use of visualization tools that are based on established methodologies in qualitative research; each was developed based on the identification of the data collection, coding, analysis process. The understanding of the data in visual terms allows the researcher to compare hierarchies, position and quantity of the visualized entities.

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