Contemporary Youth Research in Arab Mediterranean Countries: Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methodologies
SAHWA Concept Paper
The main aim of this Concept Paper (CP) for the Project “Researching Mediterranean Arab Youth: Towards a new social contract” (SAHWA) is to show a conceptual guide for research as a whole. More than an established map, we conceive it as a compass in order to help us in the trip that we launch; or better as an astrolabe to ensure we do not sink, change the course for the different disciplines implicated in the research, and reach port. To do this we begin with the four basic questions that any scientific project must take into account. Why we research (academic, social and political reasons that warrant this study); what we research (the delimitation of our object of study in their thematic framework, and geographic context); how we deal with the complexities (the methods and techniques that we are going to use to collect representative data); and for what reason (the results that we expect, especially those of an innovative character or which shed light on theoretical, applied and contributory knowledge). These four basic questions serves as starting points to produce a ‘know-how’ perspective, which facilitates combining qualitative and quantitative methods, to shape a polyphonic ‘mosaic’ of youth population in Arab Mediterranean countries to contribute to providing primary data and outputs for researchers, the youth themselves and policy-makers in the region.