Researchware

While the integration of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Qualitative Data in mixed method research studies is a hot topic for today's researchers, S.M. Lilley utilized HyperRESEARCH in an integrated GIS Qualitative study on "The Role of Technology in the Production of Spaces" in 2000 as part of work performed under a £40,648.00 grant. HyperRESEARCH's simplicity, flexibility and power have always allowed easy integration with other research tools, including GIS.

According to the abstract, this study focused on two computing technologies to explore how the "utilisation of technology contributes to users understanding of space, and how spaces are produced through these understandings." The author drew on debates in geography and in science and technology studies (STS) that suggested that "technologies and spaces do not pre-exist, but are produced through their performance in the social". The study explored the "processes that contributed to the construction of both space and technology, and the mechanisms through which these processes dynamically interact with one another. Through in-depth interviews with users utilising two distinctly different computer applications, the discourses mobilised by situated users were analysed to access how these processes operate in specific social settings. It also provides insights into how an understanding of how space is constructed has practical implications for how technologies are used."

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