%0 Journal Article
%T What is - really - in a dataset?
%A Therese Heltberg
%J Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs
%@ 1458-6126
%D 2011
%I 
%R 10.2478/v10199-011-0044-x
%X AIM - The article considers methodological problems of working with register data and shows how deficiencies in a quantitative dataset may constitute a tool for discovery if data shortcomings are used as input in a qualitative investigation of data genealogy. DATA - Based on a specific research case example the article demonstrates how qualitative moments are intrinsically embedded both in quantitative datasets and in the statistical processing. CONCLUSIONS - It is argued that statistical analyses of datasets cannot be made without considerations of institutional organisation and perceptions of persons implied in the production of data. Lastly it is suggested that prison-based drug misuse treatment research currently needs to face the paradoxical challenge of excessive statistical programmatic power, which has encouraged formulations of ¡®causalist¡¯ research questions. It is further suggested that a reorientation towards theoretical explanation as an addition to the statistical demonstration of factor associations is important if quantitative studies are to further open the black box of treatment.
%K prison-based drug misuse treatment
%K mixed methods
%K critical approach to quantitative treatment studies
%U http://versita.metapress.com/content/vx25vu8504323w03/?p=b43e346c7c9c49aba7da83ee67b81d8a&pi=6