For a long time, we have observed an increased interest in qualitative sociology, and the use of an interpretive frame to understand human actions, social processes, meanings and definitions, and new social theory generally. For this purpose, we created Qualitative Sociology Review – an open-access international scientific journal enabling a free flow of information and the integration of the community of qualitative sociologists.

Qualitative Sociology Review publishes empirical, methodological, and theoretical articles applicable to all fields and specializations within sociology. Every submitted paper is blind-reviewed and quality-controlled by two reviewers. The Editorial Staff and Consulting Editors strive to operate at a high level of scientific quality.

All sociologists who make use of an interpretative paradigm and qualitative research methodology are welcome to submit their articles and support our initiative. We especially welcome researchers who use symbolic interactionism perspective but also grounded theory, sociological ethnography, autoethnography, phenomenology, ethnomethodology, and who use the methods of observation of actions and analysis of lived experiences.

INSIDE VOL. 20 NO. 1 (2024): 

Researching Vulnerable Groups: Definitions, Controversies, Dilemmas, and the Researcher’s Personal Entanglement

Urszula Kluczyńska, Anna Maria Kłonkowska, Małgorzata Bieńkowska

The article aims to describe vulnerable groups in the context of qualitative research in social science with special attention to ethical and methodological dilemmas. This is a theoretical study, which does not aspire to offer solutions or guidelines, but rather show elements worth taking notice of and analyzing when research is planned and carried out. We argue that in the social sciences, vulnerability is relational and crucial. However, social science researchers perceive the category of vulnerability as ambiguous and nuanced. This article shows that ascribing research participants univocally to a vulnerable group may lead not only to them being stereotyped and deprived of individuality but also to a situation where the research act itself disempowers them. We also argue that apart from issues often raised concerning the protection of participants from vulnerable groups, the researcher and their protection are also pivotal, particularly when the researcher, due to their involvement, abandons the out-group perspective or when they belong to the vulnerable group.

The Conceptual Metaphor as an Ethical Kaleidoscope in Field Research

Maria Flis, Karol Piotrowski

Attention to metaphor as a tool for cognition and action has already been called by the classic work by Georg Lakoff and Mark Johnson—Metaphors We Live By (1980). However, some four decades after this publication’s first edition, the role of metaphor as a useful instrument in empirical research seems to have been forgotten. Therefore, the first step taken in the text at hand is to highlight that codes of ethics neither resolve nor befit the dynamically shifting circumstances of research conducted in the field. Ethical codes are often insufficient. Hence, an objective here will be to critically assess the broad application of such codes in general. The second step will be to turn to metaphor as a tool in developing the sociological imagination as understood by C. Wright Mills. The metaphor can also assist in finding oneself when confronted with difficult, ambiguous circumstances that may arise during fieldwork. Metaphor as a tool, as an ethical kaleidoscope coherently links the field research experience precisely with the sociological imagination.

Biographical Work of Parents of Children with Non-Normative Sexual Orientation and/or Gender Identity

Katarzyna Gajek

This paper aims to reconstruct the biographical work (Corbin and Strauss) undertaken by parents of non-normative people. The initiating event of biographical work is the disclosure of a non-normative sexual orientation and/or gender identity by the child. For many parents, this is an event that causes a breakdown of previous schemes of action, a gradual loss of control, and suffering.

The empirical data consist of autobiographical narratives of parents of people with non-normative sexual orientation and/or gender identity. The study involved mothers and fathers residing throughout Poland, who were selected according to the snowball procedure. The data were collected through the narrative interview technique and compiled according to the analytical procedure proposed by Fritz Schütze, which is part of the interpretative research paradigm.

In the course of four parallel biographical processes (contextualizing, coming to terms, reconstituting identity, and recasting biography), the new experience is integrated into the biography, its consequences are understood and accepted, a coherent identity is reconstituted and a new course for one’s life are charted. The analysis of the narrators’ biographical work has made it possible to identify three categories that organize the course of the parents’ lives and identities—stigma, normalization, and activism.

Transitioning (on the) Internet: Shifting Challenges and Contradictions of Ethics of Studying Online Gender Transition Narratives

Joanna Chojnicka

The use of social media in qualitative research has become extremely popular. YouTube, in particular, has attracted attention from scholars working on (self-)representation of minority groups, including the transgender community (e.g., Dame 2013; Horak 2014). Most academic disciplines, however, have been slow in responding to the increasingly challenging nature of social media in terms of their ethics and methodologies. For example, there is a common misconception that any publicly available YouTube videos can be freely used for research. Many studies openly reference the YouTube channels they discuss (Wotanis and McMillan 2014) or anonymize data, but do not seek informed consent from creators (Raun 2020). What is more, researchers rarely reflect on how their work could impact the communities under study or the way creators use social media (Leonelli et al. 2021). At the same time, researchers wishing to protect vulnerable communities may find themselves falling short of FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and re-usable) research principles required by funders. In this contribution, I discuss these and other challenges using, as a case study, my project, which investigates gender transition narratives on Polish social media. I wish to show that there is no one-fits-all approach to the ethics of social media studies—as the very nature of social media is in constant flux—and call for attentiveness and reflexivity as an inextricable component of qualitative social media research methodology.

“Am I Going to Die?” Considering the Preparation for Research on an Example of Hospice Patients

Weronika Kamińska

This article concerns the situations experienced by the researcher in one of the sensitive research groups—hospice patients. The article is based on the author’s experiences in three studies in Poland—94 in-depth interviews and observations in inpatient and home care hospices. Through the seven presented categories the author faced during the interviews, she analyzes the dilemmas of conducting qualitative research from a practical perspective. During studies, we learn about our preferences, sometimes defining ourselves on one of the sides—becoming a quantitative or qualitative researcher, thus deciding further scientific paths. Conducting qualitative research requires specific activities, including knowledge of the literature, selection of the proper method, and analysis of the research group (Silverman 2012). These principles turn out to be only the beginning of the process in which we intuitively, through trial and error, pave the way to deal with demanding situations, previously inexperienced emotions, coordination, and technical and ethical problems. Some studies require special preparation, particularly considering the specificity of certain research groups, such as hospice patients, who will face the dying process soon.

Ethical and Methodological Dilemmas in Qualitative Research Conducted among Vulnerable Groups—Guest Editors’ Introduction

Małgorzata Bieńkowska, Urszula Kluczyńska, Anna Maria Kłonkowska

Book Review. Bjørgo, Tore, ed. 2005. Root Causes of Terrorism: Myths, Reality and Ways Forward. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge

Pavel Ahmed, Mst. Safia Akter

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