Luker may be suffering from tunnel vision…

The Knight and Luker readings were a bit redundant in that they both addressed the coding process, the methods used to code, and the challenges involved. The difference is mostly in the delivery and the fact Knight looks at statistical analysis as a way to make sense of data. Knight explains how to analyze both quantitative and qualitative data whereas Luker, despite her claim of being a mixed-methods salsa dancing social scientist, continues to be heavy on the qualitative side of research methods and analysis. At the beginning of the chapter “Getting Down to the Nitty-Gritty” Luker that writes that she has “strong opinions about how to do the kind of research that you and I are interested in” imposing on the reader her ideas about what methods of data analysis are appropriate and desirable (129). Luker fails to account for those researchers wanting to use descriptive statistics to analyze their data. Luker’s book is helpful but I find when it comes down to the practicalities, Knight covers more bases in a less biased manner.