TAKING THE DEBATE ON REFLEXIVITY FURTHER

Much has been written on the presence of researcher subjectivity in qualitative research and the concept of reflexivity, and efforts to account for researcher influence abound. A vast proportion of this literature examines interviewer effects and is confined to the relationship between researcher and respondent in the interview interaction. The present paper extends this focus. It contributes insights from a collaborative team project by presenting a case study of a biographical‐narrative interview in an organisational setting. The psychodynamically informed panel analysis considered dynamics not only in the interview, but also in the research team and the organisation. This proved valuable in making explicit latent ways in which the interviewer, subject to such wider dynamics, shaped the interview accordingly. The paper shows that awareness of the nature of researcher influence can lead to important insights about the phenomenon studied.     

Overcoming the challenges of researching ‘young offenders’: using assisted questionnaires – a research note

This short research note discusses some of the challenges involved when undertaking qualitative research with ‘young offenders’, a neglected area within the methodological literature. By drawing on previous research with ‘young offenders’, the author discusses how the use of traditional face‐to‐face interviews produced a number of research challenges which are specific to the psychosocial, biographical and institutional contexts of this particular population. In attempting to overcome some of these challenges in her current research, the author developed a specific research tool – the assisted questionnaire (AQ) – and the remainder of this article describes how its use with ‘young offenders’ helped to overcome some of the methodological challenges which had earlier been identified.     

Developing an analytical framework for multiple perspective,qualitative longitudinal interviews (MPQLI)

Collecting multiple perspectives data (e.g. from related individuals) in a qualitative longitudinal design can provide rich understanding of the dynamics at play in complex relational systems, and the different perceptions of people involved. However, such approaches are inherently challenging due to the complexity and volume of data involved. So far, little attention has been paid to the methodological challenges of data analysis in multiple perspectives longitudinal research. This paper contributes to the development of a systematized analysis process for multiple perspectives qualitative longitudinal interviews (MPQLI). We present a framework for handling the complexity and multi-dimensionality of MPQLI, describing discrete steps in such analyses, and related aims and insights. We exemplify the suggested strategies with our own research on the transition to parenthood. The proposed framework can increase both traceability and credibility of analysis of MPQLI, and help to realize the potential of multiple perspectives longitudinal interviews.     

Critical realism in empirical research: employing techniques from grounded theory methodology

Whilst critical realism (CR) is becoming recognised as a significant meta-theory for the social sciences, there is little guidance on how to produce research which is consistent with its ontological and epistemological assumptions. This article contributes to an emerging discussion about how CR can be applied, drawing on an example of a qualitative study that has sought to understand and explain the causes of unmet need amongst a group of rural labourers in Tunisia . Using this study as an illustration, I show how techniques from grounded theory methodology can be usefully harnessed in the data collection, coding and analysis stages of a research project that adopts a CR philosophical and methodological framework. I illustrate how an ‘abductive’ variant of grounded theory allowed drawing on pre-existing theoretical knowledge throughout the research stages; whilst open and axial coding techniques could be harnessed for identifying and postulating CR causal mechanisms. This article should be of interest to students and researchers involved with grounded theory and applied critical realism.     

Thinking critically about and researching algorithms

ABSTRACT

More and more aspects of our everyday lives are being mediated, augmented, produced and regulated by software-enabled technologies. Software is fundamentally composed of algorithms: sets of defined steps structured to process instructions/data to produce an output. This paper synthesises and extends emerging critical thinking about algorithms and considers how best to research them in practice. Four main arguments are developed. First, there is a pressing need to focus critical and empirical attention on algorithms and the work that they do given their increasing importance in shaping social and economic life. Second, algorithms can be conceived in a number of ways – technically, computationally, mathematically, politically, culturally, economically, contextually, materially, philosophically, ethically – but are best understood as being contingent, ontogenetic and performative in nature, and embedded in wider socio-technical assemblages. Third, there are three main challenges that hinder research about algorithms (gaining access to their formulation; they are heterogeneous and embedded in wider systems; their work unfolds contextually and contingently), which require practical and epistemological attention. Fourth, the constitution and work of algorithms can be empirically studied in a number of ways, each of which has strengths and weaknesses that need to be systematically evaluated. Six methodological approaches designed to produce insights into the nature and work of algorithms are critically appraised. It is contended that these methods are best used in combination in order to help overcome epistemological and practical challenges.     

Changing times: Migrants’ social network analysis and the challenges of longitudinal research

Focusing on migrant social networks, this paper draws upon the sociology of time to incorporate complex notions of temporality into the research process. In so doing, we consider firstly, the challenge of going ‘beyond the snapshot’ in data collection to capture dynamism through time. Secondly, we apply the concepts of timescapes to explore ways of addressing the wider context and the interplay between spatiality, temporality and relationality in migration research. We argue that integrating a mixed methods approach to SNA, crucially including visualisation, can provide a useful methodological and analytical framework to understand dynamics.SNA can also be helpful in bridging the personal and structural dimensions in migration research, by providing a meso level of analysis. However, it is also important to connect the investigation of local and transnational networks with an analysis of the broader social, economic and political contexts in which these take shape; in other words, connecting the micro and the meso with the wider macro level. Drawing upon reflections from our migration research studies, we argue that different combinations of quantitative, qualitative and visual methods do not just provide richer sets of data and insights, but can allow us to better connect conceptualisations – and ontologies – of social networks with specific methodological frameworks.     

Comics and visual biography: sequential art in social research

This article describes the use of comics in a mixed methods biographical research project aimed at understanding the experiences of vegans (i.e. people who eschew animal products such as meat, dairy and eggs). It begins with a discussion of Comics Studies as a growing interdisciplinary field of academic inquiry, and attempts to trace a connection between this and Visual Sociology more broadly. It then provides examples of the way in which comics were used in the project and the rationale underpinning this. Participants were asked to create comics about their lives, which aimed to supplement biographical interviews that had already taken place, eliciting rich ‘visual biographical’ data that an interview would not produce. Comics were also used as a mode of representation, whereby a ‘visual autoethnography’ was produced, outlining the author’s reflexive autobiographical relationship with veganism, and telling the story of the research. This project presented challenges, specifically around participation, ethics and anonymity, and data analysis. Despite this, the comics produced provided an unusual and valuable insight into the lives and experiences of vegans. To conclude, this article argues that the visual biographical data yielded through the use of the Comics medium represents a valuable tool in visual sociology.     

Sequentielles Mixed-Methods-Sampling: Wie quantitative Sekundärdaten qualitative Stichprobenpläne und theoretisches Sampling unterstützen können

Mixed methods sampling has played a minor role in methodological discussions so far. In particular, there is a lack of information about practical implementations and critical reflections of sampling decisions and sampling steps showing the benefits and challenges of different approaches. Therefore, this paper demonstrates by drawing on an empirical example, how quantitative secondary data analysis (German Socio-Economic Panel, Linked Employer-Employee Data, Employment History) can support the empirically informed formation of contrast groups for qualitative sampling plans as well as field access to these contrast groups. Furthermore, the article will show how an additional theoretical sampling can extend the empirically grounded composition of contrast groups and can build upon the quantitative secondary data. The discussion is based on a project with an explanatory sequential research design which combines quantitative secondary analysis with subsequent expert interviews with human resources managers in companies and narrative interviews with employees. The project focusses on the causes, practices, and consequences of employment relationships with an interrupted membership in the same employing organization (“recalls”).     

Reflections on Two Studies of Emotionally Sensitive Topics: Bereavement from Murder and Abortion

This article provides a candid account of the challenges two researchers faced while collecting qualitative in‐depth interview data on two different studies of emotionally sensitive topics. These studies involved asking participants to describe their feelings about a difficult experience—the loss of a loved one to murder and the termination of a pregnancy. We build on the literature on feminist methodology by offering a backstage look at qualitative research on an emotional topic and with an emotionally vulnerable population. Using illustrations from our respective studies, we share some of the insights we gained on recruitment problems, interview question development and participant compensation (e.g., financial, interpersonal and follow‐up contacts). We also discuss the need for monitoring and attending to the participants’ emotions as well as our own throughout the data collection process.     

A comparative study on Italian new communities abroad: the cases of Tunisia and South Africa1

This paper presents two case studies about Italian new communities abroad: one Tunisian and one South African. These case studies were conducted – in a larger international research project on 14 countries – with different types of interview: focus interviews, in-depth interviews, focus groups, etc. The mixed interview modes brought to light how – with a different research strategy (methodological triangulation): quantitative and qualitative data – our complex social experience can be inquired into, in particular migration processes. The authors decided to utilise semi-standardised and non-standardised techniques. This paper discusses how the mixed research logic – utilised in both of these cases – is very productive in terms of knowledge. It seems that focus group interviewing techniques (and others) have been used progressively more and more over the past years as both a self-contained method for conducting qualitative research and in combination with other research methods. In the authors’ opinion, mixed-methods research (or multiple research strategies) represents a smaller corpus of literature that is getting increased attention. The essays in our paper are grouped along four themes: (a) economic development and globalisation; (b) perceptions and discourses; (c) the new migration phenomenon; and (d) fragmentation of identity. The authors believe that rebuilding a morceau de vie of Italian emigration helps to better analyse the role of the communities of immigrants in the construction of national processes. As a result of this, their survey introduces reflections on theoretical—methodological logic and concurs with placing such aspects in a global and social structural dimension. However, the universal and social structural dimension can be extended to the specific case. Its contribution in the first part investigates a variety of linkages of migration with broader processes of social–economic development and social globalisation. That global patterns of migration and the processes of globalisation are linked in various ways has long been recognised. The second part of the paper stresses the meaning of perceptions and discourses linked with the migration phenomenon and underlines the importance of an accurate methodological approach in order to provide new sociological points of view and appropriate research strategies.     

Snippets and silences: Ethics and reflexivity in narratives of sistering

This paper considers two aspects of feminist orthodoxy regarding ethics and reflexivity during data analysis in qualitative research. These methodological issues surfaced in an exploratory study of how discourses of sistering socially construct and produce feminine subjectivity. Research was carried out with 37 women aged between 6 and 50 from different class and ethnic backgrounds living in the UK. Auto/biographical work in sociology influenced the design of the qualitative methods and the use of a grounded theory and case study approach to the analysis of the interview narratives. The discussion of methodological dilemmas-how to analyse multiple perspectives of relationships with varying degrees of disclosure among participants-is located within both feminist standpoint and poststructuralist theory. A case is made for guaranteeing anonymity rather than confidentiality, and offering selective reciprocity rather than an equal exchange between researcher and participants. The challenge of working with feminist reflexivity is considered through the notion of bounded privacy and a silenced 'I'.     

With a focus on well-being and capabilities

Most of the applied research on capabilities and well-being makes use of quantitative data and research techniques. This paper examines the possibilities of qualitative data gathering to explore the theoretical richness (and complexity) of the capabilities framework. With this objective, the capabilities theory is translated into a framework that enables focus group discussions on well-being. It turns out to be surprisingly easy to discus issues related to the theory of capabilities, as the concepts are recognizable for the focus participants.Being able to choose and making trade offs is related to the concepts of well-being of the participants. Provided one has ‘the basic capability to cope with capabilities’, possibilities and choices increases well-being. These findings show that the capability framework can be fruitfully used for applied research on well-being and that qualitative data gathering creates opportunities that are complementary to quantitative techniques.     

Pushing back the margins: power,identity and marginalia in survey research with young people

The study of marginalia has not been widely discussed in social sciences research and occupies a marginal space in terms of methodological legitimacy. We highlight the value of paying attention to the ways in which participants speak back to the researcher. This paper draws on marginalia found in surveys written or drawn by young people in classrooms across South Wales, demonstrating how various notes and marks made spontaneously by participants can tell us something important and worthwhile about how young people engage with research. We position marginalia as a manifestation of complex power dynamics in the research process that illuminate participants’ negotiation of complex and multiple subjectivities in the literal margins and between the lines of the survey pages. Whilst the sensitive and rigorous analysis of marginalia is fraught with ethical and methodological challenges, we argue that paying closer attention to marginalia presents an opportunity for deeper engagement with participants when undertaking survey research.     

Methodological challenges of conducting ‘insider’ reflexive research with the miscarriages of justice community

There is an increasing body of literature which examines the personal experiences of social science practitioners who become reflexive researchers. Less, however, has been written on researchers who reflexively investigate once traumatising locations and experiences. This paper problematises the psychological and methodological challenges experienced by a social scientist and ‘survivor’ of wrongful conviction conducting reflexive research where the participants and researcher have a shared (hi)story of wrongful conviction and trauma. A particular consequence of conducting the study was that friendship groups were developed between researcher and participants. The paper will examine this phenomenon and conclude that reflexive ‘insider’ approaches that spawn friendship groups can provide rich data providing the challenges of such research are acknowledged and appropriate strategies employed to safeguard the integrity of the research. The paper similarly concludes that measures should be adopted to protect the psychological equilibrium of the ‘insider’ researcher to avoid possible re-traumatisation.     

Reflections on a Cross‐National Qualitative Study of Within‐Household Finances

This report presents some reflections on and experiences from a cross‐national qualitative research project about within‐household finances conducted by sociologists from Germany, Spain, Sweden, and the United States. The authors focus first on the challenges of making qualitative cross‐national comparisons and argue for the importance of establishing a common understanding of methodological and theoretical aspects. They then go on to consider the relevance of political – cultural context for understanding within‐household distribution of resources. They suggest that meanings of money are influenced by understandings of gender, which in turn influence and are influenced by welfare regimes. They then present a few outcomes from a cross‐national analysis of results from Spain, Sweden, and the United States. They conclude the article by suggesting that comparisons on the level of results rather than on the level of primary data is a viable option for qualitative cross‐national analysis.     

Decentering Power in Research with Criminalized Women: A Case for Photo-Elicitation Interviewing

ABSTRACT

This article contributes to the project of developing a visual criminology that reclaims social relationships and the humanity and visibility of criminalized people and strives to disrupt the ideological and political underpinnings of mass incarceration and the state’s reliance on punitive responses to social inequality. Using photo-elicitation interviewing (PEI), I draw on qualitative research with 36 formerly incarcerated women living in Chicago. I review PEI’s potential to disrupt the power differential between researchers and participants and to include research participants as collaborators in knowledge production. I examine how limitations imposed by an Institutional Review Board created ethical concerns about representing women’s images and constrained women’s role in the coproduction of knowledge. I argue that PEI based on participant-generated images can help to overcome some of the ethical and methodological tensions encountered in visual criminology.     

Participant engagement in environmentally focused social network research

Environmentally focused social network analysis (Env. SNA) has increasingly benefited from engagement, which refers to the process of incorporating the individuals, organizations, actors, stakeholders or other study participants into the research process. Research about engagement in the wider field of environmental management shows that successful engagement often requires significant planning and exchange among researchers and stakeholders. While there is no one size fits all approach, several important guiding principles have been established. To date, this engagement literature has not focused specifically on SNA, even though several examples of engaged SNA exist in the literature and point to some specific challenges to engagement when working with relational data. Drawing upon data from a survey of researchers who have incorporated engagement into Env. SNA, we focus specifically on the goals, scope, effectiveness, benefits and challenges of doing engaged Env. SNA research. We additionally highlight four case studies and demonstrate that researchers and participants find engagement to be a valuable experience with benefits in the researchers’ understanding of the context and meaning of their findings. Finally, we provide recommendations to scholars looking to embark on engaged Env. SNA research.     

Quiet please, there's a lady on stage: : Centering the person with dementia in life story narrative

This paper is drawn from a larger study based on traditional qualitative thematic methods, which explored the use of secondary biographical stories as a strategy in conversation with an older person who has dementia. The aim of this paper is to re-examine the data to facilitate further discussion in gerontology about the ways in which the ideals of Kitwood's (1997) personhood and narrative inquiry can be used keep life story of the person with dementia intact. By drawing upon narrative writers such as Mishler (1986), Gee (1991), Ramanathan (1995) and Riessman (2004, 2007), we describe a methodological approach utilising structural and thematic forms of narrative analysis to keep the person with dementia ‘centre stage’ in their own life story narrative. This paper demonstrates that by integrating a person-centred approach to interpretative and structural narrative analysis, people living with dementia can be the centre of their own story and communicate with their community what is important and why it is worth telling.     

Standpoint Epistemology and the Uses of Self‐Reflection in Feminist Ethnography: Lessons for Rural Sociology*

Abstract We explore how feminist researchers informed by standpoint theoretical frameworks employ the process of self‐reflection to counter the reproduction of inequalities in ethnographic investigation. Although it is not a cure for this dilemma, we argue that researchers can be self‐conscious about the ways in which they reproduce power in the course of their work; furthermore, sustained attention to these dynamics will enrich ethnographic accounts. We begin by outlining the diverse ways in which feminist ethnographers draw on standpoint epistemology to generate strong reflexive methodological strategies. Then we describe challenges posed by postmodern and postcolonial critics, and outline how feminists have contributed to these debates and have responded with innovative methodological strategies, especially in relation to self‐reflexive techniques. In conclusion, we discuss how rural sociologists might incorporate these methodological insights into their ethnographic investigations.