Sharmila Subramanian, insight and strategy leader at PA Consulting, told the conference in London yesterday ( 10^th June) that reflexive research techniques could help bring the interviewer’s perspective to the research, and provide more of a two-way connection between participant and researcher.

Broadly, a reflexive approach to research involves understanding how the identity, assumptions, biases and values of the researcher influences the research process. 

Subramanian explained that a reflexive approach could help address power imbalances that exist in traditional qualitative interviews, where the interviewer acts more as a passive observer.

“Often, when we are engaged in qualitative research and we are aiming for this fictitious objective of the passive moderator, we often end up in quite an extractive dynamic,” she said.

“There’s a power imbalance, fundamentally – the participant is giving themselves, and we’re not giving anything back. That creates a whole host of issues.”

Adding that “neutrality is a myth – we need to be aware of that”, Subramanian said that the approach could be very useful for sensitive topics, and said that reflexive research techniques helped get moments of connection that can create powerful insights.

“When we have those moments of solidarity and connection, that enables us to look at them through a number of different lenses and get to a much more human context for the insights we then develop,” she said.

Subramanian warned that reflexive research was not about the interviewer unloading their own feelings onto the participant.

“With any relational dynamic you have to be considerate of the other person,” she said. “They are there because we have asked them to be there, and they have given us permission to speak to them. It is about thinking about how it is an interaction.”

Subramanian added: “You need the energy for it. You need to be able to be there with a participant and to meet them where they are.

“You need to be really self-aware – what are your biases, and what are those assumptions you might be making? You can’t sweep them under the carpet. If you recognise them, you can do something with them. If you don’t know they’re there, that is much more dangerous in this type of dynamic.”

Rachel Lawes, semiotician, SEG board member and author, also told the session that the reflexive approach could help make the interviewer’s biases clear and transparent, letting the participant know where the researcher is coming from.

“You bring your whole self to an interview,” Lawes said. “You are giving something back and you tell in a conversational approach, and you are letting the respondent know that it is perfectly fine for them to ask questions of you.”

She added: “When you bring your whole self to a conversation and you can be transparent and open about your background, then there are opportunities for these kinds of lightbulb moments to occur.”