Applying qualitative and quantitative research: a social impact assessmentof a fishery

Increasingly, human geographers are being encouraged to combine qualitative and quantitative research approaches. The combination involves more than s imply juxtaposing approaches; instead, some of the barriers between them ne ed to be removed. This, however, is often easier said than done. Here we ad dress the issue of combining qualitative and quantitative research approach es through a concrete example: a social impact assessment of the rock lobst er fishery in Tasmania. Australia. In addition, we discuss how the research was applied politically by people outside the academy. (C) 2001 Elsevier S cience Ltd. All rights reserved.