Analysing Semi-Structured Interviews Using Thematic Analysis: Exploring Voluntary Civic Participation Among Adults

This exemplar highlights some of the key points for consideration when conducting thematic analysis on semi-structured interview data. The data exemplar is provided by Dr Ceryn Evans, from the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD), Cardiff University, who was funded by the United Kingdom Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to explore civic participation amongst adults in Wales. Thematic analysis was carried out with the aim of exploring the social construction of civic engagement in the context of examining relationships between higher education participation and civic engagement. The extract provided in the dataset is from an interview with a single male participant, aged in his early 50s and living in Wales. The exemplar will be particularly useful to those considering using thematic analysis as an analytic method on semi-structured interview data within a broad range of disciplines in the social sciences, including sociology and the sociology of education more specifically.