RESEARCHING A CITY'S FAITHS - METHODOLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE COALFACE

Michel Clasquin
Research Institute for Theology and Religion
University of South Africa

1. Introduction

	In late 1992, the Department of Religious Studies and the Institute for Theological Research at the University of South Africa embarked on a joint research project that would last for three years. The purpose of the project was to survey the religious situation in Pretoria, to discover who was here, how many of them there are, and what these people do. A philosophical approach was adopted that stressed pluralism and interdependence. The objective was not to produce a neat encyclopædia of religions in Pretoria, with each tradition organised under a separate heading, but rather to determine the interaction among religious groups, to establish the scope and variety of religious traditions present here and to find trends in the religious lives of Pretorians. The final result of the project will be a book written by Professor JS Krüger and Mr M Clasquin.
	In this essay I intend to describe the methodology of our project in a narrow sense of the term. I shall describe how the project was launched, how data was gathered, processed and interpreted, and how the project was administered. It is hoped that this will be of value to future researchers who intend to survey the religious dynamics of a specific area. To this end, certain recommendations will also be made from time to time.

2. Regional studies - an overview

	Although regional studies have been less common in the academic study of religion than thematic studies of such aspects of religion as beliefs, modes of worship and liturgy, several regional studies do exist. There are a number of options open to the researcher: for instance, one might research the religion of an entire country. Japan seems particularly well served in this respect, with a number of books on religion in that country. We name but a few; Ellwood and Pilgrim's Japanese religion and Earhart's Religions of Japan. In the same vein one could mention Carter's work on religion in Sri Lanka. Oddie covers an area even wider than an entire country, since it includes both India and Sri Lanka. The same is true of Barrett's study of religion in eastern and central Africa. Also worth mentioning is Baird's Religion in modern India and A history of religion in Britain by Gilley and Sheils. A composite work, Religion in New Zealand society, explores the contributions made by various religious traditions in that country, while the United States of America's religious spectrum has also been particularly well researched. In the Southern African context, one could mention Chidester's Religions of South Africa and Kasenene's Religion in Swaziland. Naturally, an attempt to draw a canvas as wide as an entire country necessitates a discussion in fairly broad generalities, and many such studies tend to overlap with historical studies of religion.
	Alternatively, one could attempt to study a smaller geographical entity such as a province or a single city, as is the case with our work. One could even take a smaller unit: such is the case in Clark's assessment of religious activity in "Oakcroft", a single suburb of a northern British city. It is doubtful, however, whether a study of a single church, temple, mosque or synagogue could still be seen as a "regional study". There are of course also any number of regional studies that focus on a particular religion or denomination, but we are here more concerned with a study of religion in its plurality and diversity. 
	Such a study may take up an entire book, or it may form just a section of a wider social survey of a region or city. Our book, of course, will be an example of the former case. An example of the latter may be found in Fashole‑Luke's essay on religion in Freetown, Sierra Leone, which is part of the published proceedings of a 1966 conference that covered the whole of Freetown's history and contemporary social condition.
	In our book we shall examine the diversity of religious beliefs and practices in the city of Pretoria and its sphere of influence. Although every effort will be taken to place this in the context of the history and phenomenology of Southern African religion as a whole, this will nevertheless remain a regional and contextualised study.
	In regional studies of religion, there have basically been two main streams of methodology. The first is the quantitative approach. An excellent example of this is the intensive sociological research that has been carried on in "Middletown", a midwestern American city, since 1924. Here the emphasis is on interviewing randomly chosen individuals and investigating their religious beliefs, practices and affiliations. These can then be subjected to rigorous statistical techniques.
	The other common approach to regional studies of religion is to determine the overall flavour of local religiosity by finding out what religious institutions are present, how many members they have and what role they play in local society generally. Instead of the set questionnaire, this method prefers open‑ended questioning, whether it be on paper or during personal encounters. A good example of this is found in Shulman's encyclopædic treatment of American religion. 
	This "softer", qualitative approach has been seen by many to be particularly suitable for African studies in local religiosity: both Parrinder's study of religion in Ibadan and Hackett's work on religion in Calabar are based on this approach. In southern Africa, the same approach was taken by Pauw in his assessment of religion among the Tswana‑speaking people of the northern Cape region. This is also the approach that will be taken in this book.
	The process is described below organised in a logical, rather than a strictly chronological, order. With different people working on different aspects of the project, there was always a certain amount of overlap. Also, the research team was from time to time forced to make minor ad hoc decisions when planned events did not materialise. 
	If we learnt anything from this project, it was in fact precisely that one cannot plan every detail beforehand in a qualitative survey with a broad scope. The kind of description of the research process one finds in works that deal primarily with quantitive research, where one sets out a hypothesis, decides which data will confirm or deny it, gathers the data and arrives at a conclusion, is quite inappropriate for the kind of research we intended to do. While planning has its place even in qualitative research, the researcher must be prepared to employ his or her sensitivity towards the subject matter and adjust the methodology accordingly. On the other hand, such adjustments cannot continue indefinitely: at some stage in the first half of the data-gathering phase, the research team should perceive that the final methodology has evolved to a point where it has largely become fixed and where all that remains is to complete the process of obtaining information. In the sections below I shall indicate a few examples of when, how and why such adjustments were made.

3. Defining boundaries

	One cannot do a regional study without defining the region to be studied. For the purposes of this project we regarded "Pretoria" as consisting of the municipal districts of Pretoria, Atteridgeville, Mamelodi, Verwoerdburg and Akasia.
	The "common‑sense" view of the problem would suggest that we restrict the project to the municipal area of Pretoria, including Atteridgeville. we decided, however, that the dormitory suburbs of Akasia, Mamelodi and Verwoerdburg should be included in the project. We did not expect that the religious spectrum of, say, Verwoerdburg would be all that different from that of that of a socio‑culturally and socio‑economically similar suburb within Pretoria municipality, but these three areas are sufficiently integrated into the social, cultural and religious life of Pretoria that their omission would render an incomplete picture. Together, these four municipalities form a single conurbation that may reasonably be thought of as "Greater Pretoria". We felt, however that the Midrand area is oriented towards Johannesburg rather than Pretoria, and should be excluded from the study.
	This raised the question whether we should also include more distant northerly areas such as Soshanguve, from which thousands of workers commute to Pretoria each day.  However, we felt that these areas are integrated into the Pretoria area only financially, not socially or culturally or, above all, religiously. Informal investigations showed that the inhabitants of Atteridgeville and Mamelodi regarded themselves as Pretorians to a far greater extent than did commuters from further afield.This also raises the question whether this was to be a purely urban project or whether the rural surroundings should be included. If we opt for the latter, the question of boundaries becomes even more problematic ‑ we could have ended up with an area stretching from Ellisras to Witbank! Pragmatic reasons such as availability of staff, funding and time prevented such considerations. Theoretically, too, a consideration of urban religion is now required, for the worldwide trend towards urbanisation shows no sign of abating, and in South Africa we can still expect a massive influx of people from the homelands who were earlier denied the opportunity to urbanise by apartheid policies. 
	Some support for our decision can be found in the fact that a number of official and commercial agencies used exactly or substantially the same area for various purposes. For example, street maps of Pretoria invariably include Verwoerdburg, Atteridgeville, Akasia and Mamelodi. Postal codes and area telephone numbers are also allocated according to systems that regarded these municipalities as a coherent whole. Other research projects have also used the same area for their investigations. There is therefore a general consensus on what constitutes "Pretoria".

4. Creating a list

	Theoretically speaking, it might well be possible to simply start interviewing religious organisations of which one is already aware and use these to gather the names and addresses of further organisations and persons to contact ("snowball sampling"). In this project, however, it was decided to use a more systematic method. Our first task after determining the area to be researched, therefore, was to construct a list of all known religious organisations in our chosen area. As it turned out, this was a wise decision, for religious organisations appear to be woefully unaware of the details of their competitors.
	But where does one start such a list? The best course seems to be to extract the data from lists that already exist. One invaluable resource in this effort was the Christian Handbook. Another, and perhaps an even more valuable one given the very localised nature of the project, was the 1993 telephone directory for Pretoria (ie, the area covered by the 012 dialling code). Although it was often a tedious task, cutting out names and addresses from the telephone directory turned out to be one of the most useful aspects of our initial work. These bits and pieces of paper were initially pasted onto blank sheets of paper, and were later entered into a computerised database. Since the nature of the data was fairly simple, nothing more complicated than a flat-file database manager was required, and in fact the program that was used was MicroSoft Works for DOS™ version 3.0. This program was acquired specifically for the project.
	This part of the project gave us a full overview of all religious organisations that had access to a telephone, even if it was only the phone in the minister's house. However, there remained a large number of organisations that did not live in this first-world paradigm, largely, though not exclusively, in the black townships. When Mr Victor Molobi joined the project in July 1994, his first six months on the job were spent doing nothing else than tracking down elusive little churches in the townships, most of which belonged to the African Independent tradition. His work showed just how little we were aware of the religious landscape of Pretoria as a whole. For example, the Atteridgeville municipality was able to give us a list of 41 known churches. Mr Molobi found 116! The same situation existed in Mamelodi. There is no doubt that we could have found even more if we had been able to extend this phase of the research, but unfortunately our limited resources made this impossible.
	The database thus created was kept up and amended over time as new information came in. Additional names of organisations and contact persons were also obtained from Dr HC Steyn's files, mostly deriving from her earlier research on the New Age movement. An abbreviated form of the database, listing only the names of denominations rather than of all congregations, was circulated among the organisations on the list, all Theology and Religious Studies students of Unisa who resided in Pretoria and the staff of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the university, with the request that they should peruse the list and notify us of any omissions. Very few suggestions were given, which persuaded us that our list was reasonably complete.
	By the end of 1993, we had a list of just over 1 000 organisations. This included congregations, temples, mosques and so on, but also para-religious organisations such as headquarters of religious organisations, church schools, religious bookshops, gospel choirs and so forth. The database was published in April 1994. The same list used to create this publication was also used to publicise it, and it has sold remarkably well. 
	However, a mere six months had passed between the  compilation of the list and its use to sell the publication, yet about 3 percent of the leaflets sent out were returned by the Post Office marked "address unknown". This indicates that the rate at which religious organisations disappear or relocate is quite large, especially among the smaller ones. We suspect that new ones have since arisen to take their place, and that the absolute number of religious organisations in the area is reasonably stable, but the fact remains that publications such as the "Directory" are already historical documents on the date of their release. We are now looking into the possibility of producing an updated version, to be either included in the final publication, marketed on its own, or both.

5. Questionnaires

	The next step was to send out a semi-structured questionnaire to all the organisations on the list. Two decisions were taken in this regard. Firstly, it was decided to send the questionnaire only to congregations, and not to the para-religious structures mentioned above. Secondly, we decided not to send questionnaires to congregations of the Dutch Reformed Church until there was more clarity on their position regarding unification with the its branches in the black, coloured and Indian communities. As it turned out, by the time such clarification came, the point had been rendered moot by subsequent events and the development of the project itself. We were not entirely consistent in this approach: we did send questionnaires to the Dutch Reformed Mission Church, for example.
	The questionnaire itself contained the following questions:

	1. What is the correct name and postal address of your organisation, if different from that under which you were contacted?
2. What is the street address of the building where you conduct your regular meetings? (eg. Church, synagogue, mosque, temple.)
3. At a later stage in the project, we hope to make personal visits to selected organisations. Please supply the name, function, address and telephone number of the most suitable contact person and the language in which he or she would prefer to be contacted.
4.When was your organisation first established in Pretoria?
5. By whom was your organisation first established in Pretoria?
6. What are your religious beliefs or convictions as an organisation?
7. In what historical tradition do you see your organisation as standing? Please be as specific as possible (eg "Evangelical Calvinist" rather than just "Christian" or "Protestant").
8. How many members does your organisation currently have in Pretoria?
	a) Total members: ________
	b) Full members:  ________
9. What language is used in your organisation's activities? (if more than one, please supply percentages for each)
10. Is your organisation affiliated to or part of a larger body or bodies (eg. a synod, diocese or (inter)national headquarters) regardless of whether or not this body resides in Pretoria? If so, please specify.
11. Are any other organisations affiliated to or part of your organisation? (eg. a school or a religious bookshop.) If so, please specify their names and locations.
12. Does your organisation have formal membership of or other links with ecumenical organisations (local, national or international)?  If so, please specify.
13. Does your organisation have formal membership of or other links with interreligious organisations (local, national or international)? If so, please specify.
14. If you answered "No" to one or both of the previous two questions, do individual members of your organisation, to the best of your knowledge, have formal or informal contact with ecumenical or interreligious organisations, or with other religions? If so, please specify without necessarily naming the persons involved.
15. In the history of your organisation and its religious tradition in Pretoria, has your organisation ever separated from another body? If so, please specify when and where this occurred and what the original organisation was called.
16. Have any new movements separated from your organisation in the last fifty years? If so, please specify.
17. Has your organisation combined with or joined any other organisation in the last fifty years? If so, please specify.
18. Who are the current religious leader(s) of your organisation? (eg. pastors, priests, imams, rabbis.) Please supply title, name and gender of each one.
19. How would you typify your organisation in terms of gender, socioeconomic status, age and ethnicity?
20. Can you recommend any literature about the history of your organisation in Pretoria?
21. Attached you will find a list of religious organisations currently being studied. Please scrutinise this list. Can you think of any organisations that should be added to it? If so, please supply a name and address for each such organisation.
22. When do you conduct your main days of worship and prayer and your tradition's most important festivals?
23. Would it be possible for our researchers to attend the meetings and festivals described in question 22?
	_ Yes _ No
24. We hope to publish a book containing the results of the project during 1996. Would you like to be advised when this book is published?
		_ Yes   _ No
25. Any other comment you wish to make, especially on the history of your organisation:

	The reply rate for the questionnaire was disappointing. Only about 18 percent of respondents completed the questionnaire and returned it to us, despite the inclusion of a stamped, self-addressed envelope and a covering letter. However, there was a good spread of religious traditions among these respondents, and the returned questionnaire became a valuable source of contact persons in the interview phase. We felt it safe to assume that anyone who had returned the questionnaire would be sufficiently well-disposed to the university and our project that we might safely approach them with a request for an interview. They were therefore given priority in the next phase of the project. This turned out to be a correct assumption.
	We did, however, come across a few organisations that flatly turned our request down. One church, of a very strict Reformed persuasion, sent a letter informing us that they declined to fill in the questionnaire because "we are a church, not a religious organisation, and this project therefore does not apply to us". The irony of this is that we had decided to use the term "religious organisation specifically with an eye to including as many religious traditions as possible! Others, like the Transcendental meditation movement, denied having any religious content at all and likewise declined to participate.
	Overall, we found the postal questionnaire method disappointing. While it may be more useful in situations where the social context ensures a high response rate, we found that it is not really suitable for qualitative research into the religious profile of an area. 

6. Interviews

	From the beginning, it was envisaged that the mainstay of the project would consist of personal interviews with leading members of religious organisations. This gave our project somewhat of an "official" flavour, in that all the material we gathered came from ministers, bishops and other dignitaries. In a few cases, we were able to speak with the founder or current head of an organisation, but mostly our interviews were with "middle-level" office-bearers. More serious than the shortage of top-level input is the lack of "grassroots" input that is therefore visible in our material. Also, our respondents were mostly middle-aged males. To some extent, however, this deficiency was corrected by the participant observation part of the project, to be described below.
	In most cases, our resources limited us to one interview per religious organisation. We would have wished for more, of course, but that was usually not possible. However, to some extent this turned out to be self-correcting, for the respondents of small organisations were more likely to have all the required data at their fingertips, especially if they were the founder of the organisation in question or his/her immediate successors. Large organisations, on the other hand, were far more likely to have generated books and articles on which we could draw. 
	As in the case of the questionnaire phase, problems were encountered with the interviews. These included people not turning up for appointments or not returning phone calls. There were also conservative religious movements that did not wish to appear in the same book with more liberal ones or with organisations belonging to an entirely different traditions. Then, there were movements whose spokespersons could give us little or no information because of the esoteric nature of their teachings. The single biggest problem encountered was with the Zion Christian Church. Even two visits to Moria and a personal interview with Bishop Lekganyane did not procure us permission to interview the local dignitary of this church. We were therefore forced to turn to other sources for information on this large and important church.
	The interviews were conducted according to a semi-structured format. We had firm ideas regarding what information we required, but did not wish to inhibit the respondents in their answers. Accordingly, we compiled a list of "topics" rather than "questions". In its final form, the list was as follows:

1. What is unique about your group?
2. Basic beliefs 
3. History 
3.1. Internationally
3.2. RSA
3.3. Pretoria
3.4. Anyone else you could recommend we talk to about this?
4. Membership 
4.1. numbers
4.1.1. Internationally
4.1.2. RSA
4.1.3. Pretoria
4.2. Language
4.3. Race
4.4. Gender (M/F ratio)
4.5. Other socio‑economic factors
4.6. Criteria for membership
4.7. Criteria for expulsion
5. Organisational structure 
5.1. Internationally
5.2. RSA
5.3. Pretoria
5.4. How are leaders appointed?
6. Training of office bearers 
6.1. Gender of office bearers?
7. Buildings 
7.1. How many
7.2. Where
7.3. architectural style
7.4. Size
8. Events, services and liturgy 
8.1. When
8.2. How long
8.3. How
8.4. Dress
8.5. Funerals
	8.6. Choirs
	8.7. Sacrifices
9. Attitudes towards wider society 
9.1. Importance of education
9.2. War, military service and political conflict
9.3. Other
10. Social service (old age homes etc.) 
11. Attitude towards people with different beliefs 
11.1. Other denominations
11.2. Other religions
12. Networking 
12.1. Internationally
12.2. RSA
12.3. Pretoria
13. Mission and propagation 
14. Attitude towards Pretoria generally and "feeling" in Pretoria 
15. Views on the present and the future of the country (and religion) in RSA and Pretoria 
16. Anything else?
16.1 Recommended literature?

	The topics are stated in very concise form since the interviewer would be at hand to explain them if necessary. The respondents were also given a list of topics, but since we felt that the full list might be confusing, the one they received only listed the main topics:

1. What is unique about your group?
2. Basic beliefs 
3. History 
	4. Membership 
5. Organisational structure 
6. Training of office bearers 
7. Buildings 
8. Events, services and liturgy (celebrations) 
9. Attitudes towards wider society 
10. Social service (old age homes etc.) 
11. Attitude towards people with different beliefs 
12. Networking 
13. Mission and propagation 
14. Attitude towards Pretoria generally and "feeling" in Pretoria 
15. Views on the present and the future of the country (and religion) in RSA and Pretoria
 	16. Anything else?

	We found this semi-structured approach to be ideal for our purposes. Interviews conducted in this way might start to ramble once in a while, but the very presence of the list of topics would tend to bring the interview back to the desired point. On the other hand, the structure was not so rigid as to alienate the interviewee. 
	No formal pilot study was undertaken, but after the first twenty interviews the research team considered the responses that had been received thus far, revised some topics and added a few more. The first twenty interviews were then incorporated into the project as a whole. The list of topics produced in this way has remained substantially intact and was used in the processing of data (see below), but when interviews with the African Initiated Churches commenced, we found that we needed to reduce the "academic" bias of some of the topics and rephrase them slightly. For example, it was found that instead of asking "What are your basic beliefs?" it was more useful to ask "What do you think of polygamy?" and "Do you venerate the ancestors?". No slur was intended with this to the interviewees, who often showed a sophistication far beyond what one might have expected. One cannot simply equate illiteracy with lack of sophistication, but we did find it necessary to rephrase our questions in order to elicit a response from the interviewees.
	In fact, we found that the educational level of the respondent was a major factor in determining the ease of conducting the interview. Respondents who had studied at a university or seminary were familiar with the concept of research, could often anticipate what the interviewer was trying to find out and were less suspicious of our motives. Interviewing them was much easier. However, they could also use this to their advantage, subtly twisting the interview in order to present a more favourable image of their organisation. Some of these interviews, when one reads between the lines, show the unmistakeable signs of the respondent putting forward the truth of his religious convictions in the guise of giving only the basic data, and the interviewer desperately trying to get the interview back on track!
	Our basic approach, however, was to allow the respondents to express themselves as fully as they wished, without interruptions from the interviewer. This approach gave us far more information on "basic beliefs" than we really needed, but in most cases we did eventually arrive at the other topics too. We also did not insist on covering the topics in the order presented on the list. This did put severe demands on the interviewer, who constantly had to make mental notes on what areas had already been discussed, but it did allow the respondents to speak more freely. Later, back at the office, the material could be classified, as described below. A minor side effect of this was that not all interviewees actually answered all the questions. However, since there was no consistent pattern involved in such omissions, the qualitative worth of our research was not affected. A question that was answered by respondent A was not answered by respondent B, and vice versa. In the context of the project as a whole, the fact that a particular interviewee does not answer a particular question was not all that important. What we were looking for were trends.
	Here we can find one example of how the methodology needed to be adjusted to fit the responses. After about fifty interviews, we had found only two respondents who stated that their organisations had more males than females among their active membership, and even they saw this as an anomalous situation. Accordingly, we were prepared to drop the question and rather spend interviewing time on topics on which more divergent responses were forthcoming.
	Another possibly controversial aspect of our research design was that we specifically engaged Mr Molobi to research the "black" areas of Atteridgeville and Mamelodi, while Mr Clasquin and Prof Krüger conducted interviews with the other ethnic groups. Here we can only say that it was not our intention to design our research around a concept of racial differentiation, but that we did have to accept the reality of especially linguistic differences. Mr Molobi gained access to organisations that would have been deeply suspicious of two white men coming around and asking questions: even Mr Molobi had to explain time after time that he was not working for the authorities and that the information he sought would not be used against the interviewee.

7. Processing and interpretation

	Each interview was recorded on a tape recorder. If possible, the interviewer's comments were also spoken afterwards on the same tape, or otherwise might be typed separately. The tape was transcribed, and the transcription was then lightly edited in order to remove the inevitable um's and ah's, and was then printed. A copy was sent to the interviewee (minus the interviewer's comments), together with a letter expressing our gratitude for the opportunity to interview. This served both as a courtesy gesture and in order that he or she may check the transcript for accuracy and contact us in case there is valuable information that he or she believes the research team should be aware of. In the event, few of our interviewees took the trouble to respond.
	The computer file of the transcript was then classified by Mr Clasquin so that the interviewee's responses are categorised  according to the expanded list of topics mentioned above in section 1, and this classified transcript was then placed in a separate computer file. Each quotation also contains a reference to the page number of the edited transcript where it may be found in its original context. The need for this arises from the fact that while we use the list of topics to give some structure to the interview, we do not attempt to force the interviewee into a rigid structure. Some interviewees therefore tend to return to a previous question, to anticipate a topic that is further down the list than one would expect, etc. By rearranging this material according to the list of topics, it is possible to ensure that no such material is lost sight of, yet the page reference to the original interview allows us to see the quotation in its original context.
	Mr Clasquin and Prof Krüger then received one hard copy each of both the edited and the classified transcript (also referred to as the "organisation file"), as well as photocopies of all other material (eg returned questionnaires, pamphlets). In addition to this, a set of computer files has been created in which each of the topics mentioned above in section 1 has its own file, in which all the religious organisations' responses to that topic are listed (the "topic files"). These files are listed sequentially to coincide with the number of the topic, thus the file named P‑4‑1‑3, for instance, will contain material related to the number of members in Pretoria (topic 4.1.3), as related by all the interviewees of the various religious organisations. The material was transferred within MS‑Works from the organisation file to the topic files by means of a specially written semi‑automated interactive macro. The point files were finally printed shortly before the report-writing stage of the project.
	In this way, it was possible to have an overall view of a particular religious organisation according to our list of topics (the organisation file), to see this information within its  original context (the original, lightly edited transcript) and to see the variety of responses to a single topic (the point files). While this was a fairly labour‑intensive modus operandi, the material thus classified, eventually became of immeasurable value when the writing phase of the project commenced. It should also be of use to future researchers and care was therefore taken to maintain complete archival intactness. The tapes used in interviews are not re‑used, but stored along with other information on the organisation in question. We also took a variety of photographs of buildings and people of interest.
	In addition to the above, a number of other computerised files have been created:

(1) A photography file, in which buildings and persons that should be photographed for the book are listed for future reference ‑ we hope to engage a professional photographer in the final stages of the project.
(2) An interviewee file, in which capsule descriptions of the interviewees are kept for future reference.
(3) A spreadsheet‑based timeline, which depicts the international, national and local founding dates of religious organisations graphically.
(4) A file that describes special mini‑projects of special theoretical interest that may be engaged in later if time and resources allow and integrated into the main project. 

	We set up an interpretative schedule that enabled us to interpret and evaluate the incoming data ambulando, according to a grounded theory methodology. The first step is that Prof Krüger reads the transcript, the organisation file and the interviewer's comments. He then writes a set of theoretical observations on the organisation in question, in which he relates the organisation to religio‑scientific theory and to previously‑interviewed organisations, and of which Mr Clasquin receives a copy. Mr Clasquin then responds to this in a further methodological memo, if required. Prof Krüger stores all of these  methodological and theoretical reflections in a separate (paper) filing system. In this way, we accomplished the bulk of the interpretative work before the writing stage commenced. Some important theoretical aspects emerged in this process.

8. Semi-participant observation and further literature

	Besides the use of questionnaires and interviews, the project also involved a limited amount of direct observation. This was only semi-participant observation: we did not enter deeply in the religious life of any particular organisation, but instead attended services, meetings and celebrations of as wide a variety of movements as possible. This was an invaluable aid to our research: it gave some flesh to the bare skeleton that was our interview data. 
	We also accepted with gratitude any literature we received from our interviewees or in with returned questionnaires. Some of them also indicated where we might find further (printed) information on their religious organisations. In addition to this, of course, there were the usual wide-ranging searches for information in university libraries and other archives.

9. Administration

	Administrative requirements will of course vary from one project to another. In our case we found it useful to conduct meetings of the entire project team on a weekly basis where possible, and to keep accurate records of what was reported and decided at these meetings. Organisational requirements also led to the writing of quarterly and annual progress reports.

10. Conclusion

	The qualitative method is not, as some would have it, an easy method to apply. In fact, we found that its application to field research called for a high degree of sensitivity towards the subject matter, a willingness to admit that the initial expectations on which the initial research design was built were incorrect, and the subsequent preparedness to alter one's methodology even in mid-stream. Despite this, we found it to be a highly rewarding method. It gave us insights into the religious life of Pretoria that, we believe, could never have emerged from vast columns of numerical data.

NOTES

References cited

Baird, RD (ed). 1981. Religion in modern India. New Delhi: Manohar.

Barret, DB (ed). 1971. African initiatives in religion. Nairobi: East African Publishing House.

Braden, CS. 1971 {1936}. Varieties of American religion. Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press.

Caplow, T, Bahr, HM & Chadwick, BA. 1983. All faithful people. Change and continuity in Middletown's religion. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Carter, JR (ed). 1979. Religiousness in Sri Lanka. Colombo: Marga Institute.

Chidester, D. 1992. Religions of South Africa. London: Routledge.

Clark, DB. 1970. Local and cosmopolitan aspects of religious activity in a northern suburb. in Martin, D & Hill, M (eds). 1970. A sociological yearbook of religion in Britain 3. London: SCM. pp 45‑77.

Clasquin & Molobi, 1994. Directory of Religious organisations in the Greater Pretoria Area. Pretoria: CB Powell Bible Centre.

Colless, B & Donovan, P (eds). 1980. Religion in New Zealand society. Edinburgh: T & T Clark.

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