Abstract:
The use of computers in humanities for basic content analysis of text data became popular starting in the 1960s and has been used up until the present. Social scientists exploited the advantages of computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS)in the 1980s. Indeed, because of the widespread of personal computers, software for qualitative analysis was developed and continually im-proved. Today the use of such programmes in social research is quite standard. This paper provides a methodological introduction to the use of the CAQDAS-software MaxQDA2, which will be exemplified with a project analysing organizational change of interest organizations in the so called New Economy. The paper is divided in three parts. The first part provides an overview of an ideal type of research process, the second part gives an introduction to the research project itself, while the third part deals with aspects of the practical use of MaxQDA2.