@article{ee331429297644faac2881ca13fb82dd,
title = "Metatheme Analysis: A Qualitative Method for Cross-Cultural Research",
abstract = "In recent years, there has been a florescence of cross-cultural research using ethnographic and qualitative data. This cutting-edge work confronts a range of significant methodological challenges, but has not yet addressed how thematic analysis can be modified for use in cross-cultural ethnography. Thematic analysis is widely used in qualitative and mixed-methods research, yet is not currently well-adapted to cross-cultural ethnographic designs. We build on existing thematic analysis techniques to discuss a method to inductively identify metathemes (defined here as themes that occur across cultures). Identifying metathemes in cross-cultural research is important because metathemes enable researchers to use systematic comparisons to identify significant patterns in cross-cultural datasets and to describe those patterns in rich, contextually-specific ways. We demonstrate this method with data from a collaborative cross-cultural ethnographic research project (exploring weight-related stigma) that used the same sampling frame, interview protocol, and analytic process in four cross-cultural research sites in Samoa, Paraguay, Japan, and the United States. Detecting metathemes that transcend data collected in different languages, cultures, and sites, we discuss the benefits and challenges of qualitative metatheme analysis.",
keywords = "anthropology, coding, cross-cultural, ethnography, meta-code, meta-theme, metacode, qualitative, theme",
author = "Amber Wutich and Melissa Beresford and Cindi SturtzSreetharan and Alexandra Brewis and Sarah Trainer and Jessica Hardin",
note = "Funding Information: We acknowledge the support of the Mayo Clinic-Arizona State University Obesity Solutions initiative, which was generously funded through the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, the ASU Office of the Provost, and the US National Science Foundation Cultural Anthropology Program (Award SBE-2017491) to the NSF Cultural Anthropology Methods Program. We also benefited from support from the ASU President{\textquoteright}s Strategic Initiative Fund. We thank our colleagues and students for supporting our efforts, especially Charlayne Mitchell, Deborah Williams, Carol Ember, and H. Russell Bernard. Funding Information: We acknowledge the support of the Mayo Clinic-Arizona State University Obesity Solutions initiative, which was generously funded through the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, the ASU Office of the Provost, and the US National Science Foundation Cultural Anthropology Program (Award SBE-2017491) to the NSF Cultural Anthropology Methods Program. We also benefited from support from the ASU President?s Strategic Initiative Fund. We thank our colleagues and students for supporting our efforts, especially Charlayne Mitchell, Deborah Williams, Carol Ember, and H. Russell Bernard. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: We received funding from the Mayo Clinic-Arizona State University Obesity Solutions initiative, Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, ASU Office of the Provost, the ASU President?s Strategic Initiative Fund, and the US National Science Foundation Cultural Anthropology Program (Award SBE-2017491) to the NSF Cultural Anthropology Methods Program. Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: We received funding from the Mayo Clinic-Arizona State University Obesity Solutions initiative, Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, ASU Office of the Provost, the ASU President{\textquoteright}s Strategic Initiative Fund, and the US National Science Foundation Cultural Anthropology Program (Award SBE-2017491) to the NSF Cultural Anthropology Methods Program. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2021.",
year = "2021",
doi = "10.1177/16094069211019907",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "20",
journal = "International Journal of Qualitative Methods",
issn = "1609-4069",
publisher = "International Institute for Qualitative Methodology, University of Alberta",
}