Introduction to inductive qualitative content analysis

Content analysis is the systematic and rule-based collection and analysis of texts (communication content) through the interpretation of manifest and latent content and their meaning. The meaning is determined by breaking down the texts into categories using coding. Inductive qualitative content analysis is used when you want to understand the content of texts such as documents, group discussions, and interviews by focusing on empirical data and/or when little is known about a phenomenon. In short, you would go through the process by collecting data (e.g., interviews) or using secondary data (example used in the chapter: students’ autoethnography), which you approach with an open mind without strict guidance by theoretical presuppositions and then develop the categories based on the material. In inductive qualitative content analysis, theory is used in a reflexive way (see Section 4.3 ). The category system is not predetermined for inductive qualitative content analysis, but it is instead constructed with reference to the empirical material for the organization of data for analysis and interpretation (see Section 5.3 ).