Discovering (experiential) spaces within (social) spaces – Potentials of standardized structure-exploratory methods for deepening qualitative findings

Mixed-methods designs are increasingly relevant, as they allow deeper analysis of social phenomena by combining qualitative and quantitative methods. While qualitative approaches often serve only to refine quantitative studies, I stress the value of the reverse: applying statistical procedures, even with small case numbers, to enrich and better understand qualitative insights. Standardized data, in particular, can help to reveal the social conditioning (e.g., of conjunctive experiential spaces) of social phenomena and to understand how they have come to be.

In an integrated mixed-methods study on interpretive patterns of industrial policy settlements in East Germany, I show how qualitative findings can be deepened through standardized methods. The study included eleven group discussions and 37 interviews with people from different social positions, analyzed partly with Ralf Bohnsack’s Documentary Method. The aim was to identify latent interpretive patterns concerning the planned large-scale settlement and its impact on social transformation. The method enabled the empirical reconstruction of interpretive patterns grounded in collectively shared experiences.

Alongside the interviews and discussions, a short questionnaire captured sociodemographic data such as age, gender, education, and occupation. These formed the basis for constructing Bourdieu’s social space with multiple correspondence analysis. Though not representative of the entire region, the space highlights key relations, situating respondents by capital volume and composition. This spatial positioning allows analysis of interpretive patterns in a socio-historical context and reconstruction of Mannheim’s conjunctive experiential spaces—shared contexts shaping socialization. Thus, qualitative findings are deepened through standardized methods.

Reconstructing Mannheim’s experiential spaces through Bourdieu’s social space analysis provides insights into interpretive patterns, habitus, and milieus. It also allows consideration of social conditioning, such as socio-structural features, highlighting similarities and differences in qualitatively reconstructed phenomena. Exploratory methods like multiple correspondence analysis, feasible even with small samples, enrich understanding without replacing qualitative analyses.