Old News Items

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  • We recently completed a Q Primer which describes how to use Q method to reveal social perspectives in environmental research. We wrote this document to help familiarize graduate students and new researchers to Q methodology. While there are other excellent primers that introduce the method, what seemed to be missing was a document that would help novices to the fieldwork through a Q study in a step-by-step manner from inception to completion. A large part of this document is essentially a highly practical tutorial on how to carry through a Q study. Throughout the document, we highlight controversial themes about the method and present and defend our stances on those issues. Our experience with using the method comes exclusively from applications in environmental policymaking. It is because of this that the examples we use in the text are taken from environmental studies. It is our hope that this document will continue to promote learning and exchange among scholars as well as illustrate how Q method can be a valuable research tool.

  • An article entitled Selecting the Right Tool for Evaluations: Guidance for Community Involvement Practitioners was published by EPA in its EPA Public Involvement Network News issue from winter 2008. Download the article or read the entire newsletter.

  • Guidance documents aimed at practitioners describing how to use Q method and focus groups are now available. They provide detailed discussion of how to use these methods for gathering feedback about community involvement efforts and stakeholder preferences for clean-up at Superfund sites. These guidance documents were developed as part of our project on empowerment and evaluation (more).