Citation

Yanchar SC. Theory Psychol. 2011; 21(2): 179-199.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0959354310393777

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article discusses the potential contribution of certain types of numerical data to explicitly interpretive, contextual inquiry (i.e., inquiry commonly associated with the use of "practical discourse" and "qualitative" methods) and extends an earlier argument on this topic. Three example studies that clarify this earlier argument, drawn from the research program of Yrjö Engeström, are presented. These examples provide concrete demonstrations of two principal ways in which Engeström used numerical data, in conjunction with data accrued through more traditional qualitative forms of inquiry (e.g., phenomenography, discourse analysis), to offer explicitly interpretive, contextual accounts of practical human action within dynamic "activity systems."