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The declarative mapping approach (DMA) is a method for designing, coding, analysing, understanding and theory-building within qualitative social science and humanities research.
In brief
The major component of the declarative mapping approach is the declarative mapping sentence (DMS) which is a sentence of ordinary prose. The declarative mapping sentence when used in philosophical inquiry and qualitative research is a structural template that the researcher develops at the commencement of a research study. The DMS is a statement by the researcher of all aspects of the research domain that is being investigated along with research participants (if subjects or participants form part of the research) brought together in a written statement in ordinary prose.
In more detail
When using the DMA, the pertinent aspects of a research domain are specified and are called facets. Also specified are the relevant sub-aspects of each facet, called elements. These two forms of components are joined together using ordinary language in a way which is believed to represent how these sub-components of the phenomena of interest are thought to interact in everyday life.
When the declarative mapping sentence is used in a qualitative social science and philosophical study, published literature, conversations with other scholars and the researcher's own thoughts are used as the basis for the construction of the initial declarative mapping sentence. The facets are incorporated within a sentence that presents a hypothesised structure for the interaction of the facets in the domain of inquiry. By explicitly stating an area of inquiry within a declarative mapping sentence the believed relationships between facets may become obvious and the pertinence of the facets and their interactions in the phenomena as a whole may be more clearly revealed. A declarative mapping sentence does not specify an outcome or format to the information that will be gathered but allows any form of information to be used in the scholar’s endeavours to shed light upon the phenomena and to adapt the structure of the sentence.
As well as forming a framework within which to conduct a research study, the DMS is also usually the end point of the research, which is often modified during the research process from its initial form.