Everyday voices as big data: a call for the secondary analysis of large-scale qualitative interview data

Elliott, Jane ORCID: 0000-0003-2683-0099, Friese, Carrie ORCID: 0000-0001-7144-8046, Harris, Gaby, Mann, Liz ORCID: 0000-0003-4267-1614 and Savage, Mike ORCID: 0000-0003-4563-9564 (2025) Everyday voices as big data: a call for the secondary analysis of large-scale qualitative interview data. Sociology. ISSN 0038-0385

Text (elliott-et-al-2025-everyday-voices-as-big-data-a-call-for-the-secondary-analysis-of-large-scale-qualitative-interview) - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial. Download (303kB)

Abstract

This article reflects on the paradox that although research using qualitative interviews has developed sophisticated repertoires of data collection, it has not fully embraced secondary analysis and has struggled to address questions of representativeness. This contrasts with quantitative social science where this is now routine. We discuss recent innovations associated with the ‘big qual’ approach to assembling data from existing qualitative interview studies but argue for a development that champions secondary analysis of qualitative interview data collected from larger, more representative samples. We reflect on precedents for this approach from the 1958 British Birth Cohort Study and, more recently, the American Voices Project. We draw out the unrealised possibilities of secondary analysis, enhanced by recent affordances of computational social science. We argue that the wider deployment of secondary analysis will expand the appeal of qualitative research for policy audiences and contest the hegemony of quantitative survey analysis.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2025 The Author(s)
Divisions:	International Inequalities Institute Sociology Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences
Date Deposited:	26 Jun 2025 16:42
Last Modified:	26 Jun 2025 16:42
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/128577

Actions (login required)

View Item