Help:Coding strategies in Atlas.ti

Inductive coding (specific to general)

1. Code a document

• Open a document from the Document Manager.
• Reading through the document, highlight each natural segment – a sentence or passage that contains a distinct idea – to create a quote.
• For each quote, attach a word or short phrase from the quote as a code (in vivo coding), AND/OR create a specific code that encapsulates the significant information from the quote (descriptive coding).

2. Create code groups

• Open the Code Manager.
• From the list of codes, look for codes that address a similar theme or question.
• Select similar codes using the checkboxes and add them to a code group. Note: Code groups cannot be used for tagging, but they can be used in queries. They are know as “smart codes” in some software versions.

3. Summarize findings

• Open the Quotation Manager
• Click filter, and select one of the code groups. For example: [Code group] [has any of] [#family]. This will show all the quotes that match a given code group.
• Try to answer a question or make a general statement about the theme. For example: “We have evidence of siblings working together and parents working with their children in fish processing, but also individual family members making their own occupational choices.”

Deductive coding (general to specific)

1. Code a document

• Open a document from the Document Manager.
• Reading through the document, highlight each natural segment – a sentence or passage that contains a distinct idea – to create a quote.
• For each quote, select one or more of the themes from the project that apply to that segment as a thematic code. See the list of themes from DFM Working Group 1: Social Economy, below.

2. Analyze the thematic codes

• Open the Code Manager.
• Select one of the thematic codes, to see all the quotes associated with that theme.
• For each quote in the list, add one or more specific analytic codes that point to how that passage would help answer one of our questions related to the chosen theme. For example, if we have tagged a quote [livelihoods] and we see information that would answer the question "how secure are dried fish-based livelihoods?", we can tag that segment [livelihoods: security].

3. Summarize findings

• Looking at the analytic codes, try to answer a question or make a general statement about the theme. For example: “Some dried fish processors have achieved greater livelihood security by moving to Phnom Penh, though they retain connections to their village of origin.”

List of themes

Thematic code	Description
LIVELIHOODS	How dried fish processing contributes to the livelihoods of poor and vulnerable people
POLITICAL ECONOMY	Political economy (competition between: dried fish and fish meal value chains, SSF and LSF, migrant workers and locals, etc.)
SOCIAL RELATIONS	Social relations (gender and kinship) in changing dried fish economies
CONSUMPTION	Consumption: food and nutrition security and food preferences
LABOUR	Work and exploitation
ADAPTATION	Adaptation (how do fishers, processors, traders, and retailers adapt to environmental, technological, economic, and social change?)
COVID	COVID-19 impacts
CULTURE	Cultural heritage (dried fish in literature, religion, ceremony, etc; safeguarding efforts)

Adapted from DFM WG1 Themes and outputs.