Down the methodological rabbit hole: Thinking diffractively with resistant data

Gary LEVY, Christine Margaret HALSE, Jan WRIGHT

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlespeer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This article, part of a larger study, began with an inquiry into the ways a small group of preteen boys and girls with diagnosed eating disorders discussed their ideas and attitudes about healthy bodies in individual interviews. Despite applying some of the usual analytic procedures, the data yielded little of significance in relation to body and health discourses, or to gender differences. We therefore wondered whether our underlying epistemological lenses and methodological toolkit had prevented us from seeing and hearing what was happening with this particular cohort. By shifting from a predominantly feminist post-structuralist, socio-cultural approach to one more inflected with varieties of feminist post-humanism and post-qualitative thinking, the data came differently into focus, and invited closer consideration. Employing a diffractive analysis then allowed some fresh, unexpected salience in the data to become more apparent. Copyright © 2015 The Author(s).
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)183-197
JournalQualitative Research
Volume16
Issue number2
Early online dateFeb 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016

Citation

Levy, G., Halse, C., & Wright, J. (2016). Down the methodological rabbit hole: Thinking diffractively with resistant data. Qualitative Research, 16(2), 183-197.

Keywords

  • Anorexia
  • Children
  • Diffractive methodology
  • Feminist post-humanism
  • Post-qualitative thinking
  • Resistant data

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