Concerning Samples - The Utility of Certain Clarifications. The article concerns qualitative samples and qualitative sampling. The subject is first treated from an historical point of view by looking at the work of the Chicago school of thought and the birth of the qualitative-quantitative opposition. This quarrel over methods is attenuated by distinctions made in this article between: (a) locality and subject of a study; (b) statistical representativeness and sociological (or theoretical) representativeness; (c) descriptive theory and explicative theory. The construction of a qualitative sample can be formulated as a calculation involving explicitly and uniquely defined and regulated operations.