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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Natasha MauthnerORCiD
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This paper investigates epistemological questions raised by data sharing imperatives for qualitative social scientists about whether and how third-party researchers can meaningfully reuse qualitative data outside of the contexts of their production. The paper argues the different positions taken up by researchers reflect the philosophical heterogeneity of qualitative research and contrasting ‘representational’ and ‘relational’ conceptualisations of data. Data sharing initiatives (policies, infrastructure, guidance) increasingly recognise these differing understandings of data. Yet they seek to institutionalise a standardised representational definition, seen as a solution to the perceived ‘problem’ of methodological and philosophical diversity of qualitative research. Drawing on six articles reporting on secondary analysis of a qualitative dataset retrieved from Syracuse University’s Qualitative Data Repository (QDR), the paper demonstrates how differing research philosophies shape conceptualisations of data and how they are used as an epistemic resource in reanalysis practices. It draws critical attention to how QDR’s representational understanding of data brings different epistemic affordances, enabling and/or constraining researchers’ abilities to make knowledge claims from the archived dataset depending on their philosophical approach. Greater recognition of the philosophical diversity of qualitative research, supported by enhanced philosophical reflexivity, can help advance epistemological debates about qualitative data sharing.
Author(s): Mauthner NS
Publication type: Article
Publication status: In Press
Journal: Science, Technology & Society
Year: 2024
Acceptance date: 01/03/2024
Date deposited: 22/05/2024
ISSN (print): 0971-7218
ISSN (electronic): 0973-0796
Publisher: Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd
URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/sts
