CYGNA: Getting creative with qualitative research methods
Reports on our 66th CYGNA meeting - an on-campus meeting in Oxford where we learned about a range of creative research methods
Group picture, I love all these sensible walking shoes! Part of the programme was a walk in Oxford :-).
And of course my very own lovely purple cast [I broke my wrist a few weeks before the event]
After two great online meetings on editorial and reviewing responsibilities and research networking in gender & diversity, it was time for an on-campus meeting focusing on developing new skills, with a particular focus on qualitative research methods.
We have done quite a few of these skills development meetings over the years (e.g. MBTI, big data, social media, social network analysis, negotiating better, Necessary Condition Analysis, secondary data, managing research networks) and it is always great to refresh one's methodological and personal skills toolkit. It is even better to be able to do this in a safe space where there is no such thing as a stupid question.
Although to date our on-campus meetings have either taken place in the London area or in the North of England (organised by the CYGNA North team), we were very happy to experiment with a different location. So, we were thrilled when two members of our CYGNA UK/Europe team - Sylwia and Joanna - volunteered to host the meeting at Oxford Brookes University in Oxford.
The meeting was hosted / sponsored by the Centre for Diversity Policy Research and Practice (CDPRP) with funding from Oxford Brookes Business School. The full day meeting - taking place on a beautiful sunny day in June - attracted more than twenty participants from Oxford Brookes and various London universities, but also from as far afield as Newcastle, Southampton and Bath.
The organisers had not just arranged for four thought-provoking presentations (see below), but also a delicious lunch and the most gorgeous afternoon fruit platter I have seen in a long time. I can still taste the "just perfect" raspberries and mangoes. Thank you so much for securing the budget to do so in these financially challenging times.
Multimodal experiential mapping
Sylwia Ciuk (Oxford Brooks University, UK) introduced us to a very novel visual research method that she has developed for one of her recent projects.
In her presentation Sylwia focused on the generative potential of utilizing digital technologies for methodological innovation within arts-based methods. She reflected on the many opportunities as well as the challenges and complexities of experimenting with novel methodologies.
Participatory and co-design methods
Charikleia Tzanakou (Oxford Brooks University, UK) took us on a journey of co-creative research methods.
Charoula's presentation explored the concept of co-creation within a safe, inclusive environment, examining its role in research and funding contexts. It addressed the benefits and challenges of co-creation, illustrated with real-world examples and tools in addressing inequalities at work and society, and was grounded in the principles of the Design Justice framework.
Data scraping to enable discourse analysis
Karen Handley (Oxford Brooks University, UK) took us through the use of data scraping with different types/sources of data: websites [text/visuals/video], Mumsnet data and Twitter data.
A key message was that the technical aspect of data extraction is only one part of the research puzzle. Big data analytics also requires us to ask sociological and ontological questions about what the data actually mean, and what we can claim from it. You can download the slides of Karen's presentation here.
New methods for literature reviews
Joanna Karmowska (Oxford Brooks University, UK) ended the day with a comprehensive presentation on "how to do literature reviews better", drawing on her own recent work in this area.
In sum
Our experiment of organising a CYGNA meeting in a new geograpical location was definitely a success even if train problems meant the CYGNA Lead Team representatives - Christa Sathish and myself - arrived late. Sure attendance is a bit lower than in online meetings, but we still had a very good crowd who were a very attentive audience (see picture below).
Moreover the abundance of time for networking allowed us all to put not just a face, but a full body to a name. This really makes a difference to the cohesion of the network. We still can't believe we have grown from an average of 8-10 participants in 2014-2015, 2015-2016, 2016-2017 and 2018-2019 to on campus meetings atracting 20-30 participants and online meetings often reaching double that.
Related blogposts
- Intercultural Survey Research: Challenges & Solutions
- CYGNA: Necessary Condition Analysis: What, Why and How?
- What if fully agree doesn't mean the same thing across cultures?
- CYGNA: Big Data in the Social Sciences
- Research Methods in IB – Trends and Future Agenda
- CYGNA: Social network analysis and managing large research teams
- AIB RM-SIG: Research methods in International Business
- CYGNA: Secondary data sources and research portfolios
- The ins and outs of experimental research in IB and Management
- CYGNA: Understand your co-author(s) & yourself with MBTI
- Language effects in international mail surveys
- CYGNA: Negotiation workshop
- Do you really want to publish your literature review? Advice for PhD students
Related video
Related pages
- About Cygna - Background on the CYGNA network
- Quick overview - Overview of presenations in our meetings with linked slidedecks
- Meetings - Information about forthcoming CYGNA meetings, and links to prior years
- Membership - Information for and about the Cygna network membership
- Readings and inspirations - Inspirational readings and resources for female academics
- The Cygna charter - Documents our CYGNA charter
- Cygna videos - Repository of introduction videos of our CYGNA coordination team
- Cygna history - Tracing the history of our network since 2014, includes links to all of our meetings
- Frequently asked questions - Everything you may want to know about the CYGNA network and more
- The SWAN project - Initiated by Christa Sathish and Clarice Santos and implemented by Jacqueline Leon Ribas, this project created two swans reflecting CYGNA’s equal, inclusive, collective identity and the diversity of the network and its members
- Conference meet-ups - Provides brief write-ups of CYGNA conference meet-ups
- 10-year Anniversary event - Programme page for our 10-year anniversary event
- International Women's Day - Our collection of posts for international women's day
Copyright © 2025 Anne-Wil Harzing. All rights reserved. Page last modified on Wed 2 Jul 2025 13:39
Anne-Wil Harzing is Emerita Professor of International Management at Middlesex University, London. She is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business, a select group of distinguished AIB members who are recognized for their outstanding contributions to the scholarly development of the field of international business. In addition to her academic duties, she also maintains the Journal Quality List and is the driving force behind the popular Publish or Perish software program.
