Qualitative Methods and the Pursuit of Economic Understanding

This paper describes the qualitative methods deployed in a series of investigations examining post-disaster recovery following Hurricane Katrina. It argues that qualitative methods, particularly ethnographic field interviews, are essential tools in contexts that the interpretive frameworks (mental models) of the research subjects play a dominant role in shaping broader patterns of social coordination. Given the importance, Austrian economists attribute to non-deterministic learning as the source of endogenous change and discovery in contexts of genuine uncertainty; it argues that this underutilized set of tools ought to be considered particularly valuable.

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