Everyday Voices as Big Data: A Call for the Secondary Analysis of Large-Scale Qualitative Interview Data

Elliott, Jane, Friese, Carrie, Harris, Gaby ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-1827-8767, Mann, Elizabeth and Savage, Mike (2025) Everyday Voices as Big Data: A Call for the Secondary Analysis of Large-Scale Qualitative Interview Data. Sociology. ISSN 0038-0385

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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.