Focus Group Research Design

This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of focus group research, beginning with its origins in marketing to its wide application in Social Sciences, including Political Science and EU Studies. It outlines the method’s advantages—such as the possibility to collect rich data through interaction in a short amount of time, the empowerment of diverse voices, flexibility, and the generation of new ideas—alongside its limitations, which include the moderators’ influence, the possibility of dominant voices shaping the discussion, and the difficulty to generalise the findings. The chapter also reviews methodological standards with regard to participant recruitment, questionnaire design, and ethical considerations. Furthermore, the chapter discusses how focus groups have so far been used in EU Studies to study citizens’ attitudes toward European integration, (de-)politicisation, and identity. The chapter concludes by highlighting the lessons learned based on the practical experience of implementing focus groups across six countries in the research process. These experiences underline the importance of context sensitive designs, skilled moderators, and adaptive strategies to foster inclusive and meaningful discussions.