COMPUTER PROGRAMS FOR QUALITATIVE DATA
    Leviticus as Seen through NUD*IST
    Sandrine Zerbib: Using NVivo to Understand Women Film Directors
 

Computers have been a powerful innovation for quantitative data analysis: comparable to microscopes or telescopes for biology and astronomy, respectively.  More recently, however, the utility of computers for qualitative analysis has become rapidly apparent.  A number of computer programs have been developed precisely for that purpose.

This section begins with the use of a simple spreadsheet for storing coded data.  It would be possible to bring together data items sharing the same codes.

NUD*IST(tm) is one of the programs designed specifically for qualitative data analysis, and a section of the chapter illustrates the use of that program to study attitudes toward homosexuality in the Book of Leviticus.  The program allows us to see the injunctions against male homosexulaity (lesbianism is not mentioned) in the context of other prohibitions.

NVivo(tm) is another qualitative data analysis program, and you will see an  extensive illustration of its use in the study of female film directors, a study undertaken by Sandrine Zerbib, a young French sociologist.