Reflexive Accounts and Accounts of Reflexivity in Qualitative Data Analysis

While the importance of being reflexive is acknowledged within social science research, the difficulties, practicalities and methods of doing it are rarely addressed. Thus, the implications of current theoretical and philosophical discussions about reflexivity, epistemology and the construction of knowledge for empirical sociological research practice, specifically the analysis of qualitative data, remain under-developed. Drawing on our doctoral experiences, we reflect on the possibilities and limits of reflexivity during the interpretive stages of research. We explore how reflexivity can be operationalized and discuss reflexivity in terms of the personal, interpersonal, institutional, pragmatic, emotional,…