Abstract

Qualitative research has come of age and is in a permanent process of proliferation. Different research programs and approaches have developed and the variety of qualitative methods is permanently growing. At the same, qualitative research has become a serious player in research when it comes to funding, evaluation and research based counselling of administration and political institutions. At this point, several challenges arise for qualitative research(ers). One of them is how to make use of the potential in the variety of existing qualitative approaches, another one is how to make use of quantitative approaches in the context of qualitative research. In the methodological discussion, we find several ways of addressing these challenges. Mixed Methods is a keyword that has attracted a lot of attention in the last decade; Triangulation has a longer tradition in this context, but its potentials are not always spelled out and used in an appropriate way. And finally, approaches of an integrated research may become a perspective to make distinctions in research programs a fruitful perspective for appropriate research designs and projects. In this talk, I will give an overview of the state of the discussion on using multiple methods in qualitative research before in the second part the potentials and the limits of using mixed methods, triangulation, and integrated research in this context will be outlined.