Sociological explanations between micro and macro and the integration of qualitative and quantitative methods, Forum Qualitative

Abstract: Despite the ongoing "war " between methodological camps this paper will argue for an integration of qualitative and quantitative methods in the sociological research process. For this purpose a short overview about important methodological discussions addressing basic questions of mixed (qualitative and quantitative) method designs will be given focusing on the term "trian-gulation " which is seen by many authors as a central concept for method integration. However, this notion carries systematic ambiguities, at least when transferred to the integration of qualitative and quantitative methods—triangulation does not represent a single integrated methodological concept but a metaphor with a broad semantic field. Three different understandings of the triangulation metaphor will be discussed: Triangulation as mutual validation, triangulation as the integration of different perspectives on the investigated phenomenon and triangulation in its original trigonometri-cal meaning. These understandings of triangulation will be contrasted with examples from sociolog-ical life-course research projects which combined qualitative and quantitative panels in order to answer certain research questions. The examples clearly demonstrate that each of the three under-standings may have a value by showing different possibilities for relating qualitative and quantitative results in one research project to each other. However, none of these three concepts may serve a