Qualitative Social Science Research Articles

Utilising interaction features on Twitter/now X to understand the 'messaging' of migration amongst non-elite users

Different aspects of interactions on social media — communication and action — imply distinctive ways of knowing the social world. I present a new methodological approach that utilizes ‘big’ social media data to understand politically salient issues such as the ‘messaging’ of migration on Twitter/now X. An iterative abductive interpretivist analytical strategy drawing on computational and qualitative social science techniques was applied to a corpus of 47,978 tweets created over five months around the time of lifting of temporary controls on free movement from Romania and Bulgaria to the U.K. in January 2014. Initial computational network analysis on the retweet action feature revealed a small number of highly influential users and a large proportion of isolated users (non-elites) who were never retweeted. Given paucity of understanding of how elite narratives on migration are absorbed, accepted or contested by non-elites, the next stage involved qualitative thematic analysis of a sub-sample of actual tweets (communication) from non-elites to understand meaning-making in views expressed. Qualitative analysis confirmed presence of highly polarised immigration attitudes amongst non-elites but also revealed their values and beliefs about national belonging. These findings prompted questions about what or who influences these values amongst non-elites and whether there are any structural differences in information flows amongst anti- and pro-immigration users. In the third stage, computational surface thematic mapping of different aspects of communication and action in the whole corpus revealed importance of the entire media environment but also differences in the presence or lack of echo-chambers amongst those expressing anti- or pro-immigrant sentiments. This article demonstrates the potential of cross-disciplinary analytical strategies when investigating politically salient issues on social media.

Book Review: Rocking Qualitative Social Science—An Irreverent Guide to Rigorous Research, by Rubin, A.T

Book Review: Rocking Qualitative Social Science—An Irreverent Guide to Rigorous Research, by Rubin, A.T

Bricolage for Innovative Qualitative Social Science Research: A Perspective on Its Conceptual Hallmarks

Bricolage for Innovative Qualitative Social Science Research: A Perspective on Its Conceptual Hallmarks

Echoes of silence: an embossed poetic inquiry

PurposeSilences in qualitative social science research present a unique and sometimes ambiguous challenge for researchers. When working with transcription artefacts, considering not only what has been said but also what has been silenced, omitted, overlooked or brushed over allows new ways of examining a phenomenon. This paper explores a new methodological approach to exploring these silences.Design/methodology/approachThis article explores “embossed” poetry as a methodological process to consider what has not been said. Via an empirical study that examined the experience of six teachers of a year nine programme in Victoria, Australia, we explore how embossed poems within a larger research project allowed the interrogating of silences. Through a polyvocal performance of text and poetry, this paper argues that embossed poetry offers significant methodological possibilities through which previously silenced ideas and analytical processes can become visible within poetic research praxis.FindingsThe findings of this paper are that by using embossed concrete poems, researchers can explore new territories within qualitative work. By putting down the keyboard and picking up a hand-embossing tool, new space for thought emerges and other parts of an assemblage can be explored.Originality/valueThis paper presents a unique methodological contribution to poetic inquiry. Furthermore, it explores the path trodden to develop this new approach through a reflexive-diffractive polyvocal text.

“It’s Like Having an Uncontrolled Situation”: Using Body Maps to Understand the Embodied Experiences of People with Hidradenitis Suppurativa, a Chronic Dermatological Condition

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic, inflammatory, and often debilitating skin condition that includes painful “flares” in the groin, genital, and underarms. (1) Background: Patients with HS have the highest reported mental health comorbidities among dermatological conditions. Qualitative social science research about HS is limited, so this study aimed to understand the lived experiences of people with HS through body mapping. Body mapping is a participatory research process where participants illustrate a drawing of their body with images, symbols, and words that represent their embodied experience. (2) Methods: This study recruited 30 participants from a previous survey about HS experiences. Participants selected from pre-made body silhouettes based on their body shape, illustrated a body map about their HS experience, then shared their body map during in-depth interviews. Interviews and body maps were analyzed with the same codebook created with inductive and deductive codes. (3) Results: The body map drawings yielded rich visual data and the mapping process helped participants express their HS experiences in unique ways that cannot always be captured with textual data alone. (4) Conclusions: This study adds to the limited social science literature about HS and introduces body mapping as a relevant qualitative method for exploring chronic dermatological conditions.

Theorising Support for Interdisciplinary Early-Career Researchers Using Communicative Genre and 'Rules of the Game'.

Qualitative social scientists working in medical faculties have to meet multiple expectations. On the one hand, they are expected to comply with the philosophical and theoretical expectations of the social sciences. On the other hand, they may also be expected to produce publications which align with biomedical definitions and framings of quality. As interdisciplinary scholars, they must handle (at least) two sets of journal editors, peer reviewers, grant-awarding panels, and conference audiences. In this paper, we extend the current knowledge base on the 'dual expectations' challenge by drawing on Orlikowski and Yates' theoretical concept of communicative genres. A 'genre' in this context is a format of communication (e.g. letter, email, academic paper, and conference presentation) aimed at a particular audience, having a particular material form and socio-linguistic style, and governed by both formal requirements and unwritten social rules. Becoming a member of any community of practice involves becoming familiar with its accepted communicative genres and adept in using them. Academic writing, for example, is a craft that is learned through participation in the social process of communicating one's ideas to one's peers in journal articles and other formats. In this reflective paper, we show how the concept of a communicative genre can sensitise us to the conflicting and often dissonant expectations and rule systems governing different academic fields. We use this key concept to suggest ways in which the faculty can support early-career researchers to progress in careers which straddle qualitative social science and medical science.

Bridging Quantitative and Qualitative Science for BECCS in Abandoned Croplands

AbstractBioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) plays a vital role in most climate change mitigation scenarios, where a solution for sustainable near‐term bioenergy expansion is to grow energy crops such as perennial grasses on recently abandoned cropland. There is a need to combine model‐based insights into theoretical potential and future biomass supply with more fine‐grained sociotechnical analysis to move toward realistic policies and innovation strategies. We combine natural science insights anchored in quantitative bioenergy modeling with qualitative social science anchored in the multi‐level perspective. Using these mixed methods enables a global‐to‐local‐to‐global level assessment of near‐term bioenergy recultivation opportunities for abandoned cropland. Norway is the local case. There are three main findings. First, the ongoing recultivation trends for food/feed production risks making gains in aboveground carbon stocks from natural regrowth on the mapped abandoned cropland over a 30‐year evaluation period almost negligible. Second, delaying a BECCS recultivation of abandoned cropland will make it impossible to reach high‐end mitigation potentials, and an accelerated BECCS recultivation guided by a policy push is needed to ensure stronger mitigation. Third, we unravel several real‐world challenges associated with bioenergy resource and supply modeling. Remote‐sensing techniques alone cannot capture actual land availability for land‐based climate change mitigation strategies. Local‐level sociotechnical conditions are generally found insufficiently supportive to align with the rapid near‐term bioenergy crop expansion found in 2°C scenarios from integrated assessment. The integration of mixed quantitative and qualitative methods is key to better understand the role of BECCS in climate change mitigation.

Towards a dynamic earthquake risk framework for Switzerland

Abstract. Scientists from different disciplines at ETH Zurich are developing a dynamic, harmonised, and user-centred earthquake risk framework for Switzerland, relying on a continuously evolving earthquake catalogue generated by the Swiss Seismological Service (SED) using the national seismic networks. This framework uses all available information to assess seismic risk at various stages and facilitates widespread dissemination and communication of the resulting information. Earthquake risk products and services include operational earthquake (loss) forecasting (OE(L)F), earthquake early warning (EEW), ShakeMaps, rapid impact assessment (RIA), structural health monitoring (SHM), and recovery and rebuilding efforts (RRE). Standardisation of products and workflows across various applications is essential for achieving broad adoption, universal recognition, and maximum synergies. In the Swiss dynamic earthquake risk framework, the harmonisation of products into seamless solutions that access the same databases, workflows, and software is a crucial component. A user-centred approach utilising quantitative and qualitative social science tools like online surveys and focus groups is a significant innovation featured in all products and services. Here we report on the key considerations and developments of the framework and its components. This paper may serve as a reference guide for other countries wishing to establish similar services for seismic risk reduction.

Short Take: Designing a Multinational Smartphone App Survey during COVID-19: Rewards, Risks, and Recommendations

Cost-effective and user-friendly, mobile phone-assisted methods have remained underutilized in qualitative social science research. The scarce methodological guidance, together with recruitment and ethical challenges, has arguably stifled advancements in this area. COVID-19 exposed the need to better equip researchers with the expertise and tools to conduct remote research effectively. In 2020, we designed and launched a smartphone survey application to collect real-time data from children’s sector professionals across the globe regarding best practices in, and challenges to, responding to the pandemic. In this short article, we reflect on the efficiency, quality, and acceptability afforded by the smartphone app survey, and outline recommendations for enhancing rigor and feasibility. We also present data snippets illustrating the positive impact of participation on respondents—a seldom-documented aspect of app-based research. Altogether, we advocate a flexible, pragmatic, and user-centered study and app design that aligns with respondents’ specific, situational needs, and preferences.

Producing Locally Causal Explanations in Qualitative Research by Using a Realist Phenomenological Methodology

This article argues that qualitative researchers should focus more attention on producing locally causal explanations for social phenomena. To enable qualitative researchers to achieve this goal, this paper introduces a novel, step-by-step methodology for analysing qualitative data called the ‘Realist Phenomenological Method’. The Realist Phenomenological Method does not represent a novel philosophical insight because several studies have already adopted a realistic phenomenological approach in a philosophical context. Rather, this article’s novelty lies in its methodological contribution. The introduction of the Realist Phenomenological Method marks an advancement in qualitative research because it is the first formalized analytical methodology to merge methods inspired by critical realism and descriptive phenomenology. Furthermore, this method represents an advancement in qualitative research due to it enabling qualitative researchers to produce causal explanations for social phenomena. This advancement has important implications for qualitative researchers who aim to influence public policy, as any public policymaker who wants to suggest how a social problem can be addressed must first possess an awareness of what is causing the problem. This article begins by introducing the need for a new outlook on causality in qualitative research and outlining how inspiration has been taken from critical realism and descriptive phenomenology in designing the Realist Phenomenological Method. The step-by-step methodology of the Realist Phenomenological Method is then introduced, and an account is provided of how this novel methodology can advance understandings around causal explanations in qualitative research and social science. Interview extracts taken from the author’s doctoral dissertation are then used to frame each stage of the Realist Phenomenological Method and demonstrate how the method can be implemented effectively. The paper concludes that the Realist Phenomenological Method can be useful to both qualitative researchers and policymakers who aim to address social issues through effectively identifying the causes of such problems.

#Feminazis on Instagram : Hate Speech and Misinformation, the Ongoing Discourse for Enlarging the Manosphere

Social media platforms have become spaces for the viralisation of hate speech and misinformation. Paradoxically, tools that were once used for activism and conversation on behalf of vulnerable communities, nowadays work to gather and reproduce analogous worldviews on polarising issues. This research analyses the behaviour of the protagonists of the conversation around #feminazis on Instagram, as well as the characteristics of the content and the degree of interaction they generate. For this purpose, computational and qualitative social science methods have been applied to a sample of 9,300 posts published between 2021 and 2023. The results show disorderly participation by anonymous accounts, women and self-described feminists, social organisations, and pseudo-media. Content opposed to elective termination of pregnancy, and misogynistic messages lead the conversation, but there are also publications that attack other progressive ideologies. Disinformative content is linked to decontextualisation and manipulation of information to go viral, transnationalising hate speech towards feminism and their supporters, framed as a homogeneous group. It is concluded that this space, created by the platform itself, contributes to the enlargement and institutionalisation of the manosphere.

South African Food Studies

Abstract Introducing a special issue of Matatu titled “South African Food Studies,” this essay argues for the importance of food as a lens for understanding contemporary culture and society. More specifically, the essay advocates for recentring Global South contexts—in this case South Africa—in a ‘food studies’ conversation that has often been dominated by the American academy; it also underscores the vitality of the humanities, qualitative social sciences, and creative arts for transcending reductive ‘food security’ paradigms often applied in the Global South. The essay first examines the short story “Water No Get Enemy” by South African writer Fred Khumalo, introducing how a focus on food and eating can illuminate globalisation, xenophobia, resource conflict, and environmental change. From here, the authors introduce the evolving field of ‘food studies,’ then outline the eight academic, personal, and creative pieces that constitute this special issue, all authored by contributors from the African continent. Issues raised include the gendered and queer politics of food, breastmilk, and soil; the ongoing coloniality of neoliberal approaches to food inequality; the burdening of Black bodies; the role of so-called ‘ethnic restaurants’ in building transnational and multi-ethnic communities; and the heightened stakes of food access during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mapping the landscape of water and society research: Promising combinations of compatible and complementary disciplines

AbstractCoupled human‐water systems (CHWS) are diverse and have been studied across a wide variety of disciplines. Integrating multiple disciplinary perspectives on CHWS provides a comprehensive and actionable understanding of these complex systems. While interdisciplinary integration has often remained elusive, specific combinations of disciplines might be comparably easier to integrate (compatible), and/or their combination might be particularly likely to uncover previously unobtainable insights (complementary). This paper systematically identifies such promising combinations by mapping disciplines along a common set of topical, philosophical, and methodological dimensions. It also identifies key challenges and lessons for multidisciplinary research teams seeking to integrate highly promising (complementary) but poorly compatible disciplines. Applied to eight disciplines that span the environmental physical sciences and the quantitative and qualitative social sciences, we found that promising combinations of disciplines identified by the typology broadly reproduce patterns of recent interdisciplinary collaborative research revealed by a bibliometric analysis. We also found that some disciplines are centrally located within the typology by being compatible and complementary to multiple other disciplines along distinct dimensions. This points to the potential for these disciplines to act as catalysts for wider interdisciplinary integration.This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Methods Human Water > Methods Science of Water > Methods

Queer Connections and Fostering Inclusion: Reflections on Qualitative Focus Group Design

Qualitative social science research has an obligation to resist replicating or reinforcing social harms. This paper explores how researchers can adopt strategies to develop inclusive, safe, and reflexive research spaces with queer participants. Reflecting on a research study that explored the impact of queer representation in young adult literature on young readers, the paper explores the concepts of building queer connections and fostering inclusion as methods to support qualitative research design. Through this reflexive process, it has been found that intentionally using strategies to establish queer connections between participants and promoting inclusion through empathetic listening can significantly enhance participant experiences, primarily in terms of safety, support, and openness to vulnerability. These deliberate strategies also play a crucial role in reinforcing participant engagement and retention. Further, these findings indicate that these methods have additional benefits for research that transitions from face-to-face methods to online and digital formats. We argue that qualitative social science researchers who work with the queer community have an obligation to create inclusive and safe spaces for participants – not only to resist replicating stigmatising social structures, but to move beyond a pedagogy of pathologization in queer research.

Visual modelling and emergent aspects of computational thinking: Example from a cross-disciplinary course

In 2006, Jeanette Wing announced—in a very short, three-page paper—a new discipline she labelled ‘Computational Thinking.’ This new field, CT, she said, is not the same as just programming, because it also includes the energies, constructs and ambitions behind programming—such as problem-solving, heuristic and algorithmic thinking, data manipulation, abstraction, reduction, transformation, generalization, data manipulation, and pattern finding. Wing asserts that CT is an important methodology for learning in general, and that CT’s benefits extend into ‘all parts of life.’ If this claim is true, then CT should be crucial not only for students of STEM subjects—who already use computational methods—but also for those studying disciplines traditionally associated with the humanities, qualitative social sciences and arts and letters. But where are the voices from these other fields? Where are the studies of observed learning when computational methods are applied within these other non-STEM subjects? And where do we find instances of new kinds of thinking emerging from this mix? I want to address these questions in a personal and idiographic way. I describe the history, activities and outcomes of a university-level course I invented, called Visual Modelling. The course required students to intermingle computational methods with drawing and design tools. Using words and images I explain some of the ideas and procedures that emerged over the fifteen years of co-teaching this cross-disciplinary course. Everyone participated in the ongoing back-and-forth translation between the different notational languages, everyone benefited, and this level

Vicarious Trauma and Coping Mechanisms: The Lived Experiences of a Cohort of Qualitative Researchers in Academe

ABSTRACT Qualitative researchers delve into the lives of their study’s participants and embark on profound explorations to attain in-depth information and rich contextual data. For those who research trauma and victimization, they share a close, empathetic relationship with their study participants who communicate intimate, non-abstract information regarding traumatic events. These researchers give voice to and archive the traumas of everyday life as experienced by victimized and traumatized individuals. However, qualitative researchers are at risk of vicarious trauma as a result of listening to the narratives of survivors of trauma and violent crime. In Trinidad and Tobago, this is an under-researched topic. As a result, twelve qualitative Social Sciences researchers at Institutes of Higher Education (IHE) in Trinidad and Tobago were interviewed to elicit their lived experiences of being immersed in qualitative research, the existence of vicarious trauma, and coping strategies employed. The study adopted a phenomenological approach, and the data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The results indicated the presence of vicarious trauma among the study’s participants as well as a host of coping mechanisms employed to manage its effects, which raises policy implications for IHE which employs qualitative researchers.

Solidarity as an Empirical-Ethical Framework for the Analysis of Contact Tracing Apps — a Novel Approach

Digital contact tracing is used in different countries to help contain the COVID-19 pandemic. It raises challenging empirical and ethical questions due to its complexity and widespread effects calling for a broader approach in ethical evaluation. However, existing approaches often fail to include all relevant value perspectives or lack reference to empirical data on the artifact in question. In this paper, we describe the development of an interdisciplinary framework to analyze digital contact tracing from an empirical and ethical perspective. Starting with an analysis of methodological tensions in the attempt to analyze digital contact tracing, we, firstly, set out three methodological premises regarding (a) a specific view of technology, (b) a fruitful normative perspective, and (c) ways to gather empirical knowledge about the object under investigation. Secondly, we inspect consequences of these premises to develop our research methodology. In doing so, we argue for a postphenomenological perspective on technology, solidarity as an important concept to guide the ethical perspective, and an empirical approach based on qualitative social science research and the concept of affordances. We illustrate these considerations by referring to our analysis of the German Corona-Warn-App as an instance of contact tracing based on the Exposure Notification Framework by Google and Apple. We then discuss the implications of using such a framework, including considerations concerning future developments of technologies similar to or inspired by the current concepts of contact tracing.

Clericalism: What Is It and How Can We Treat It?

Pope Francis has frequently spoken about the scourge of clericalism and its damaging effects on life in the Church. Clerical priests are those priests who demonstrate the following characteristics: aloof, unaccountable, entitled, arrogant, and authoritarian. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have openly recognized the intimate relationship of clericalism to the sexual abuse crisis in the Church. However, clericalism has yet to receive adequate qualitative social science research with clear directives on how the clinical community can serve the Church in treating clericalist priests. This article addresses the issue of clericalism both theologically and psychologically to provide direction for the clinical community to respond to clericalist priests and their need for healing.

A research broker for a third‐culture researcher: Experiences conducting field research in urban Pakistan

AbstractAlthough much debate has been undertaken about the insider–outsider and in‐betweener positionalities within social science research, the third‐culture researcher (TCR) represents an under‐researched identity which demands greater attention. Conducting doctoral fieldwork in Islamabad as a TCR gave rise to challenges that were navigated through a research broker. The TCR positionality represents one who visits their country of ethnicity for the purposes of conducting research having mostly lived abroad, or as one who conducts research in a country where they have mostly lived but do not share ethnicity. I argue that research brokers are particularly important for TCRs—and in‐betweener researchers more generally—because they provide contextual grounding, protection, and access to people and places where TCRs have partial familiarity with local conditions and where all actors involved are embedded within a context of risk. Research brokers also supplement TCRs' in‐between status by negotiating and managing their own positionality and skillset to facilitate interaction between the researcher and participants. This process can be challenging and has its limitations. I assert this by drawing on joint reflections and an interview with my research broker, as well as personal anecdotes. The TCR–broker relationship transforms knowledge production in multiple ways. Firstly, working with an actor with a unique positionality and skillset offers insight into how different identities interact and engage to shape research relations and outcomes. Secondly, it highlights how the research site is experienced differently and carries various meanings, significance and consequences for those involved. Finally, the TCR–broker relationship offers the opportunity to engage in candid discussions about the benefits and limitations involved in working with others. The broker creates a significant impression on the research during fieldwork and beyond. Highlighting their voices adds to our scholarly understanding of the impact of positionality on qualitative social science methodological research.

Understanding Meta-Ethnography in Health Professions Education Research.

Understanding Meta-Ethnography in Health Professions Education Research.