Exploring Post-Qualitative Inquiry as ‘Research-in-Becoming’

In the 21st century, post-qualitative inquiry has emerged as a novel approach that promotes non-linear, non-hierarchical, and unpredictable perspectives, drawing on postmodernism, poststructuralism, and posthumanism and moving beyond the boundaries of traditional qualitative research methodologies. In this article, we combine bibliometric analysis- with a thematic synthesis approach to recognise the distinct features and prevailing trends and patterns of post-qualitative inquiry. Our research identifies the most cited publications, journals, and word co-occurrences. During our analysis, we collected over 300 papers from the WoS (Web of Science) database. The data analysis involved two procedures. Using bibliometric analysis, six clusters were distinguished based on authors’ keywords. We then selected the articles for the thematic synthesis based on authors’ keyword occurrences and the citation levels within each cluster. Descriptive and analytical themes were identified by coding the articles using MAXQDA software. The bibliometric analysis helped to map the intellectual landscape of post-qualitative inquiry by highlighting its connections to contemporary philosophical ideas of posthumanism and new materialism. The thematic synthesis identified key analytical themes that resonate with new materialism, feminist new materialism, posthumanism, pedagogy, and methodological debates.