The Ebbs and Flows of Qualitative Research

Abstract

The qualitative researcher has been described as “the instrument for analysis.” What we bring to the analytic process - our positionalities, skills, tenets, knowledge, and much more - is valued within qualitative paradigms. But what we bring is also complex, never fully accessible, and shifting and changing. Recognising this means treating analysis as reflecting moments in time. Not just of data collection, but also of us, the space and place we were in, the things we “saw” and did not “see,” or saw but did not care about, at the point our analysis was developed. Time matters. In this chapter1, we reflect: on time and change as important but often obscured tropes within qualitative research; on the pressures of time and risks and realities of “McDonaldization”; on the challenges and opportunities connected to change; and on the life course of the researcher in the process of change.

Topics & Concepts