Qualitative Longitudinal Research: Strengths and Challenges

This session is part of the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health's Research Methods Primers and Provocations series.

In this presentation, Bren Neale will give a brief overview of qualitative longitudinal research (QLR) and outline some of its unique features, including its capacity to capture complex causal processes through time. She will then consider the challenges of this methodology and how to overcome them, including issues relating to sample maintenance, data deluge, longitudinal ethics and the complexities of three-dimensional (case-theme-processual) analysis. In the final part of the presentation, Bren will consider the flexibility and creativity of this method to capture the flux of lived experiences, and she will highlight the need to balance these features with continuity and precision in research design and practice. Overall, she will make a case for the robustness and value of QLR methodology, despite the many challenges that it presents.

Please note that this session will be recorded.

How to join this event

This is an online event that is free and open for all to attend.

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About the presenter

Bren Neale is emeritus professor of life course and family research (University of Leeds, School of Sociology and Social Policy, UK) and a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. She has published widely in the field of family research, including a recent research monograph on The Dynamics of Young Fatherhood (with Anna Tarrant, Policy Press, 2024). She is a leading expert in qualitative longitudinal (QL) research methodology and its temporal and processual elements. Her many publications in this field have been consolidated in The Craft of Qualitative Longitudinal Research (London, Sage, 2021). From 2007 to 2012 she directed a national programme of temporal research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (The Timescapes Initiative www.timescapes.leeds.ac.uk). She continues to provide support and training in this methodology for new and established researchers across disciplines