Technological reflexivity in practice: how MAXQDA, NVivo, and ChatGPT shape qualitative survey analysis

Abstract

The emergence of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) into qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) intensifies longstanding debates around about how digital tools shape qualitative analysis. This article foregrounds the concept of technological reflexivity to examine how analytic practices and claims are co-produced through human-technology relations. Drawing on a reflexive comparison of MAXQDA, NVivo, and ChatGPT, I examine how different software architectures and GenAI features mediate analytic decisions, researcher-participant relationships and interpretive authority. The analysis draws on emotionally-charged data from over 1300 young people (aged 8–25) who responded to a climate-themed qualitative survey imagining the life of a fictional peer in 2050. The article shows how researcher strategies were shaped through distinct software tactics and how GenAI extends existing CAQDAS logics. It conceptualises reflexivity as a distributed practice, unevenly shared across researchers, tools, and infrastructures, and argues for collective responsibility in shaping the ethical and methodological futures of qualitative inquiry.