Transferability
In terms of transferability Lincoln and Guba note that ‘the trouble with generalisations is that they don’t apply to particulars’ (1985, 110). In qualitative research, the goal is to allow for transferability of the findings rather than wholesale generalization of those findings. Here the researcher provides ‘rich pictures’ on an individual level; the user of the research then gathers, or already has, empirical evidence concerning the
cases to which they wish to apply the findings. If sufficient similarities between the two contexts are identified then it is reasonable to apply the research findings to the new context: ‘Every context is by definition different, an intersection of a host of nameless factors. Because of this, research can only be particularized and generalization, in the traditional scientific sense, is impossible’ (Dervin, 1997, 14). Erlandson et al. (1993, 33) reinforce this: ‘Because transferability in [an interpretivist study depends on similarities between sending and receiving contexts, the researcher collects sufficiently detailed descriptions of data in context and reports them with sufficient detail and precision to allow judgements about transferability’.