Two Decades of Reflection and Critique. The Continuous Fear of Replacement—The Renaissance of Feeling and Intuition in the Age of Artificial Intelligence in Qualitative Sociology Review (2005–2025)

Lukasz Marciniak

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.22.1.01

Authors

Lukasz Marciniak University of Lodz, Poland https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4897-6868

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.22.1.01

Keywords:

Qualitative Research Methodology, Autoethnography, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Computer- Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis (CAQDAS), Precarity, Resonance, Empathy, Intuition

Abstract

On the twentieth anniversary of Qualitative Sociology Review (QSR), this article offers a critical and autoethnographic reflection on how qualitative sociology has responded to technological innovation over the past two decades. I argue that the recurring fear of replacement, first by online publishing, then by CAQDAS software, and now by Artificial Intelligence (AI), reveals a persistent disciplinary anxiety. Anxiety that qualitative sociologists are being reduced to merely instrumental analytical roles. Drawing on personal recollections as a QSR co-founder and a review of global debates, I demonstrate how these fears have shaped our collective identity. Using the example of precariat research, I highlight the impor tance of the intellectualization of qualitative research, underscoring how qualitative researchers have become replaceable by technology. While AI now threatens to take over many tasks once considered the province of our expertise, it also highlights what remains uniquely human in our field: resonance, empathy, intuition, and ontological courage. I propose a competency profile for future qualitative sociol ogists that integrates digital literacy and AI collaboration with a renewed emphasis on embodied and empathetic inquiry. My conclusion presents AI not as the end of qualitative sociology, but as a catalyst for its renewal.

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Author Biography

Lukasz Marciniak, University of Lodz, Poland

Lukasz Marciniak (Ph.D. in Sociology) is an Assistant Professor at the University of Lodz, Department of Sociology of Organization and Management. The former Chair and Vice-Chair of the Qualitative Methods Research Network within the European Sociological Association (ESA), and a co-founder of the Transdisciplinary Qualitative Research Symposium. He was a member of the Advisory Board of the SAGE Handbook of Grounded Theory (eds. Kathy Charmaz and Antony Bryant), editor of the translation of the Polish edition of the Handbook of the Qualitative Research (eds. Norman Denzin and Yvonne Lincoln). His current academic interests include research on altered states of consciousness, identity transformations, and new social and organizational movements. He specializes in reflexive research, grounded theory methodology, social pragmatist, and systemic research.

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