From Meaning to Transformation: A Qualitative Research Design for Investigating Responsibility Culture 

Introduction

Responsibility is frequently invoked across social, institutional and technological contexts, yet its meaning cannot be assumed to be shared across individuals, communities or cultures. This creates a methodological challenge for qualitative research: how can culturally mediated meanings of responsibility be investigated without imposing a predefined understanding on participants? The RESC Intercultural Model of Responsibility provides the conceptual starting point for addressing this question.

Goals and Approach

This project develops a qualitative research design for investigating Responsibility Culture as a process through which responsibility acquires meaning within cultural and institutional contexts. The study adopts an interpretivist qualitative methodology, using reflexive thematic analysis as its primary analytical method. RESC’s dimensions of Meaning, Recognition, Education and Transformation are treated as sensitising concepts rather than predetermined coding categories, combining openness to participants’ meaning-making with theoretically informed interpretation.

Development/Results

The proposed design follows a staged analytical logic. Qualitative accounts of responsibility are initially explored without coding them through RESC categories, allowing meanings, tensions and contextual influences to emerge. RESC is subsequently introduced as an interpretative lens for examining how responsibility is understood, recognised, learned and connected to transformation. Reflexive memoing and transparent documentation of analytical decisions examine how researcher positioning shapes interpretation. This sequencing addresses the risk of circularity whereby qualitative material merely reproduces the framework used to investigate it. The resulting design enables culturally situated accounts to challenge, extend or contradict the initial framework.

Conclusions

The project proposes a methodological pathway for making Responsibility Culture qualitatively researchable while preserving interpretative openness. Combining reflexive thematic analysis, sensitising concepts and staged interpretation supports culturally sensitive qualitative inquiry and provides a basis for the empirical development and refinement of RESC.

Keywords: Responsibility Culture; Qualitative Research; Sensitising Concepts; Intercultural Research; RESC