Reflexive accounts and accounts of reflexivity in qualitative data analysis

While the importance of being reflexive is acknowledged within social science research, the difficulties, practicalities and methods of doing it are rarely addressed. Thus, the implications of current theoretical and philosophical discussions about reflexivity, epistemology and the construction of knowledge for empirical socio-logical research practice, specifically the analysis of qualitative data, remain under-developed. Drawing on our doctoral experiences, we reflect on the possibilities and limits of reflexivity during the interpretive stages of research.We explore how reflexivity can be operationalized and discuss reflexivity in terms of the personal, interpersonal, institutional, pragmatic, emotional, theoretical, epistemological and ontological influences on our research and data analysis processes.We argue that data analysis methods are not just neutral techniques.They reflect, and are imbued with, theoretical, epistemological and ontological assumptions – including concep-tions of subjects and subjectivities, and understandings of how knowledge is con-structed and produced. In suggesting how epistemological and ontological positionings can be translated into research practice, our article contributes to cur-rent debates aiming to bridge the gap between abstract epistemological discus-sions and the nitty-gritty of research practice