.top-header{ transform: scale(0.5); transform-origin: top left; width: 200%; } Unstable Installation Series: Holland, J., Thomson, R. and Henderson, S. (2006) Qualitative Longitudinal Research: A Discussion Paper. London: London South Bank University, Families & Social Capital ESRC Research Group Working Paper No. 21.

Holland, J., Thomson, R. and Henderson, S. (2006) Qualitative Longitudinal Research: A Discussion Paper. London: London South Bank University, Families & Social Capital ESRC Research Group Working Paper No. 21.


Holland, Thomson and Henderson establish qualitative longitudinal research as a framework for investigating change over time while retaining the contextual density of social experience. Their central proposition is that qualitative methods can access fluid, situation-specific understandings and perceptions that large-scale panel studies tend to flatten. Longitudinality therefore does not simply increase the quantity of qualitative material; it changes the explanatory object by allowing researchers to observe process, transition and the interaction between micro-social negotiation and broader socio-cultural change. Methodologically, the paper maps research traditions, units of analysis, scale, duration, ethics, archiving and secondary analysis, showing that long-term inquiry intensifies familiar qualitative problems rather than suspending them. Consent becomes a process rather than a one-off event, while archiving demands selective and context-sensitive infrastructures. The wider bridge is to research governance and knowledge infrastructure: the value of longitudinal inquiry depends upon how repeated encounters, technological supports, ethical obligations and archival practices are organised across time.