Resisting the Objectification of Qualitative Research : The Unsilencing of Context, Researchers, and Noninterview Data
(2025) In Organizational Research Methods 28(1). p.3-31- Abstract
Based on an analysis of qualitative research papers published between 2019 and 2021 in four top-tier management journals, we outline three interrelated silences that play a role in the objectification of qualitative research: silencing of noninterview data, silencing the researcher, and silencing context. Our analysis unpacks six silencing moves: creating a hierarchy of data, marginalizing noninterview data, downplaying researcher subjectivity, weakening the value of researcher interpretation, thin description, and backgrounding context. We suggest how researchers might resist the objectification of qualitative research and regain its original promise in developing more impactful and interesting theories: noninterview data can be... (More)
Based on an analysis of qualitative research papers published between 2019 and 2021 in four top-tier management journals, we outline three interrelated silences that play a role in the objectification of qualitative research: silencing of noninterview data, silencing the researcher, and silencing context. Our analysis unpacks six silencing moves: creating a hierarchy of data, marginalizing noninterview data, downplaying researcher subjectivity, weakening the value of researcher interpretation, thin description, and backgrounding context. We suggest how researchers might resist the objectification of qualitative research and regain its original promise in developing more impactful and interesting theories: noninterview data can be unsilenced by democratizing data sources and utilizing nonverbal data, the researcher can be unsilenced by leveraging engagement and crafting interpretations, and finally, context can be unsilenced by foregrounding context as an interpretative lens and contextualizing the researcher, the researched, and the research project. Overall, we contribute to current understandings of the objectification of qualitative research by both unpacking particular moves that play a role in it and delineating specific practices that help researchers embrace subjectivity and engage in inspired theorizing.
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- author
- Hansen, Hans ; Elias, Sara R.S.T.A. ; Stevenson, Anna LU ; Smith, Anne D. ; Alexander, Benjamin Nathan and Barros, Marcos
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- interpretivism, interviews, objectification, qualitative methods
- in
- Organizational Research Methods
- volume
- 28
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 3 - 31
- publisher
- SAGE Publications
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85177476405
- ISSN
- 1094-4281
- DOI
- 10.1177/10944281231215119
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- c065752b-c28f-4dc7-9fe3-06cba39399b3
- date added to LUP
- 2024-01-10 13:19:30
- date last changed
- 2025-04-04 14:50:26
@article{c065752b-c28f-4dc7-9fe3-06cba39399b3,
abstract = {{<p>Based on an analysis of qualitative research papers published between 2019 and 2021 in four top-tier management journals, we outline three interrelated silences that play a role in the objectification of qualitative research: silencing of noninterview data, silencing the researcher, and silencing context. Our analysis unpacks six silencing moves: creating a hierarchy of data, marginalizing noninterview data, downplaying researcher subjectivity, weakening the value of researcher interpretation, thin description, and backgrounding context. We suggest how researchers might resist the objectification of qualitative research and regain its original promise in developing more impactful and interesting theories: noninterview data can be unsilenced by democratizing data sources and utilizing nonverbal data, the researcher can be unsilenced by leveraging engagement and crafting interpretations, and finally, context can be unsilenced by foregrounding context as an interpretative lens and contextualizing the researcher, the researched, and the research project. Overall, we contribute to current understandings of the objectification of qualitative research by both unpacking particular moves that play a role in it and delineating specific practices that help researchers embrace subjectivity and engage in inspired theorizing.</p>}},
author = {{Hansen, Hans and Elias, Sara R.S.T.A. and Stevenson, Anna and Smith, Anne D. and Alexander, Benjamin Nathan and Barros, Marcos}},
issn = {{1094-4281}},
keywords = {{interpretivism; interviews; objectification; qualitative methods}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{3--31}},
publisher = {{SAGE Publications}},
series = {{Organizational Research Methods}},
title = {{Resisting the Objectification of Qualitative Research : The Unsilencing of Context, Researchers, and Noninterview Data}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10944281231215119}},
doi = {{10.1177/10944281231215119}},
volume = {{28}},
year = {{2025}},
}