Corvalán, J. 2011. El Esquema Cruzado como forma de Análisis Cualitativo en Ciencias Sociales. Cinta moebio 42: 243-260

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The crossed diagram as a way of qualitative analysis in social sciences

Dr. Javier Corvalán (jcorvala@cide.cl)Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo de la Educación, Universidad Alberto Hurtado (Santiago, Chile)

Abstract

This article analyses the epistemological and methodological bases of crossed diagram in the field of social sciences and especially in qualitative research, considering that the origin of this diagram is located in the Cartesian coordinate system. Such coordinates provide elements that are at the bases of analytic geometry and from it, we highlight three aspects that have been ‘exported’ in the use of this diagram by the social sciences: the logic of the opposites; ‘spacialisation’; and conceptual fecundity. From these three aspects, we analyse the contribution of structural linguistics and anthropological structuralism to this diagram, particularly regarding the goal of formalization in the social sciences. The article shows some of the uses given to this diagram by different contemporary authors, to end classifying those authors according to their analytical integration of epistemic and methodological aspects implicit in the Cartesian coordinate system.

Key words: qualitative, methodology, structural analysis, formalisation, Cartesian.