De tres investigaciones cualitativas a una investigación cualitativa longitudinal sobre género e interculturalidad en parejas binacionales en España

Abstract

For more than twelve years (2006-2018) we developed four consecutive research projects of the Spanish National R&D&I Plan on binational couples with one Spanish member. Our objective was to study gender relations and interculturality management in a broad sample of national combinations and spatial and biographical contexts. In this article we present the methodological process and decision making adopted during these four projects, highlighting their innovative aspects.

Our aim is to explain what was intended in each of these projects, how the objectives were achieved and why the related methodological decisions were made. The article is structured in two large sections. The initial one presents the objectives pursued for the first three projects and justifies the pertinence of adopting a qualitative methodological approach. The relevant use of two privileged techniques for data collection during these projects is also highlighted: the in-depth interviews, on the one hand, and the observation on the other hand. The last one was carried out in observation units corresponding to some of the foreign spouses’ places of origin (various areas of Brazil, as well as Mexico City and Kiev). The second section deals with the design developed for carrying out a non-initially planned Longitudinal Qualitative Research (LQR), based on a selected sample of couples interviewed throughout the first three studies. We present the crucial issues and the decision making associated to the required methodological design, focused on the questions that arose both for the conformation of the sample and for the realization of the interviews.

Lastly, the article addresses the following question: how is it possible to carry out longitudinal qualitative research based on projects not initially proposed as such and within the framework of a National Research Plan?