The Nvivo Looking Glass: Seeing the Data Through the Analysis

Abstract

This paper focuses on the process of data analysis for an ethnographic doctoral study. Analysis of the interviews for the critical ethnography is discussed in detail in this paper, with particular attention given to the use of Nvivo – a qualitative data analysis software tool – to support data analysis. It is argued that using Nvivo helps to make the analysis process transparent. The metaphor of the looking glass is used to analogise the process of data analysis, and using Nvivo. The context of the critical ethnography is presented, the file sharing sub-culture. Actor-network theory is the guiding theory for the research, and detailed accounts of how different researchers apply actor-network theory to empirical data are rare. Therefore this paper makes a contribution by providing a detailed account of a systematic approach to qualitative data analysis, using ANT as the guiding theory.