Combining Ethnography and Surveys Mixed methods research designs beyond combining qualitative interviews with quantitative surveys

Mixed methods researchers usually discuss how to combine qualitative and quantitative data of the same data type (typically interviews). However, mixed methods research becomes vastly more complicated, when not only standardized data are combined with more open-ended data but simultaneously different data types are mixed (e. g. ethnographical data with survey data). Using two examples from spatial sociology, this paper illustrates that the specific benefit of such combinations is that ethnography and surveys provide complementary information. The paper also discusses how to solve some problems typically arising in mixed methods studies with mixed data types. In particular, which mixed methods design is most suitable, strongly depends on the specific research question and the social theory used. Regardless, researchers have to decide which strand of the mixed methods study is core component and which is supplemental component.