Conclusiones preliminares

I decided that this research would be best undertaken using both inductive and deductive methods. Its inductive component involved leaving the research open-ended in order to capture any new concepts and understandings that emerged during the data analysis, which can help to bring new insights to studies (Merriam, 1998). It is deductive in the sense that it started with a theoretical framework on Islamism and dakwah and a list of research questions to keep the research focused on the case study and the research topic, as well as to capture any contrasting views between the existing literature and the perspectives provided by the participants (Yin, 2009).

An ethnographic approach was chosen in order to capture the social meanings and activities of people involved in the dakwah movement under study.⁷⁶ This ethnographic approach also allowed me to observe people in their dakwah settings and to participate in their dakwah activities. As I planned to study the dakwah of the Liqo-Tarbiyah movement and, as McGuire (2008), Mahmood (2005) or Blaxter et al. (2001) might put it, the ‘lived or felt’ religious experiences of its members, a qualitative methodology seemed the most appropriate one to adopt. Qualitative methods are useful for exploring areas “where previous understanding appears inadequate or insufficient to make sense of complex situations and shifting phenomena” (Richards and Morse, 2007:29), or where people’s constructions of meanings have not previously been explored (Hassard, 1990). This research method is also appropriate for generating in-depth data (Bryman, 2008). Thus, this method was adopted because it was deemed to be suitable for uncovering the values, opinions, attitudes and beliefs of the dakwah community of the Liqo-Tarbiyah movement.

Ethnographic research uses case studies to produce focused and natural research,⁷⁷ and the current research involves a case study of female Liqo activists, using both the more informally-organised Liqo group that I studied and other Liqo groups that I interviewed, together with a study of more formal and official perspectives (cf.

Wiktorowicz 2001; 2004). The Liqo group that I studied was one for new recruits, and it was important to observe such a group as I wanted to examine the lived experiences of members in terms of how they became interested in joining the Liqo,

76 According to Brewer, “Ethnography is the study of people in naturally occurring settings or ‘fields’

by methods of data collection which capture their social meanings and ordinary activities, involving the researcher participating directly in the setting, if not also the activities, in order to collect data in a systematic manner but without meaning being imposed on them externally” (2000:6).

77 The case study approach is one of the five basic research approaches outlined by Bryman (2008:33–55).

how they moved from being outside the Liqo to its core, and how their ‘dakwah journey’ continued within the movement.

The appropriateness of my choice of the case study approach is further supported by Yin (2009), who argues that such approaches are very useful for describing, understanding, and explaining contemporary phenomena within their real-life contexts. Moreover, Gerring (2007) claims that it is generally more suitable for a piece of qualitative research to employ a single case study than multiple ones. While I still needed to put the PKS dakwah in its wider religious and political context in Indonesia, a single case study allowed me to examine also one element of the PKS dakwah – the weekly Liqo sessions. Furthermore, this was an exploratory study to answer questions of the form ‘what is going on’ and ‘is there any relationship between one variable and another’ (Bouma and Atkinson, 1995).⁷⁸

Case studies are frequently criticised on the grounds of “the credibility of generalizations made from their findings” (Denscombe, 2003:39). However, my research does not claim to represent all the Liqo programmes of the PKS in Indonesia. Gerring (2007) has criticised the case study method for not perfectly representing the population but, nevertheless, a case study can be seen as a single representation of a wider group (Denscombe, 2003). In my opinion, it is important to see the case study as an approach that is concerned with in-depth research into a particular event or organisation. The approach that I have adopted does not aim to generalise findings, but rather focuses on the way a specific group of people see particular issues. By engaging with the general discourse of the dakwah movement

78 According to Merriam (1998), a case study should be understood as an analysis of defined single units or systems. Gerring (2007) says that studying a single case in a research project is more intensive than studying multiple cases.

and using publicly available literature, my research adopts an approach that has been referred to by Stake (1995:8) as ‘particularisation’. Thus, in terms of the debate on methodological divides in the social-scientific study of religion, I adopt a

‘particulariser’ rather than a ‘generaliser’ position (Spickard and Landres, 2002).

My research explores the meaning of dakwah, both conceptually and practically, “to the particular individuals I interview, [in terms of] how they make sense of it, and how they use it to make sense of their world” (Spickard and Landres, 2002:2). I seek to understand the Liqo community of the Tarbiyah movement/PKS concerning particular issues that they teach in their weekly Liqo sessions and encounter during their interactions with other Liqo cadres. Using this framework, I did not attempt to understand their whole society, but instead “listened, watched, questioned, thought and listened again to make sense of my informants’ lives” (Spickard and Landres, 2002:3). As McGuire (2008) observes individuals’ lived religious experiences, expressions and practices are complex and dynamic. I concur with her claim that, “at the level of individual, religion is not fixed, unitary, or even coherent” (McGuire, 2008: 210). Thus, part of this research involves examining how the dakwah ideologies of the Tarbiyah movement are understood, practised, experienced, and expressed by the female cadres in the context of their everyday lives in the wider context of Indonesia. The case study is expected to provide an analytical point of view for comparing empirical findings in which propositions and theories are revised and/or rejected (Yin, 2009), and thus aims to contribute to the accumulation of knowledge within a given field (Collins, 2003).

The ‘weaknesses’ of the case study approach outlined above can be mitigated through well-planned research and sampling. For example, I chose purposive

sampling to produce the primary data for my case study. According to Rubin and Rubin (2005), it is necessary for the researcher to select a good sampling strategy in order for the chosen sample to accurately reflect the lived reality of those she is studying, and to ensure that the full range of relevant views and experiences are accounted for. Qualitative researchers frequently choose purposive sampling because they can select their respondents based on their research needs. Bouma and Atkinson (2005) stress that purposive sampling allows the researcher to select

‘typical’ samples for his or her research project, and it was employed here to identify respondents who could provide multiple perspectives on the research topics under study. Thus, the interviewees and participants selected for this study were chosen on the basis of their ability to give relevant and valuable information on the concept and practice of the dakwah adopted by the Liqo-Tarbiyah movement of the PKS in Jakarta.

The sampling targeted mentors and students from the weekly Liqo sessions to give information on lived experiences, as well as high-ranking members of the PKS, including the Head of the shari’ah council (DSP), the Head of the Advisory Council (MPP), other influential figures from the Liqo-PKS and first generation Liqo activists (as-Saabiquun al-Awwaluun), to provide me with first-hand information on official aspects of the movement’s dakwah. However, because accessing and making appointments with these high-ranking officials involved a long and difficult process, requiring recommendations from third parties, I decided to use snowball sampling as well. This was employed to identify potential interviewees who were unknown to me through recommendations.⁷⁹ However, I did not identify participants merely on

79 According to Patton (1990), snowball sampling is one of the various types of purposive sampling, along with convenience sampling and critical case sampling.

the basis of recommendations, but after consideration of the criteria of my research (see Section 3.3.2).