Building Consensus for Electrification: A Qualitative Archival Study of Sustainability Narratives in the BEV Industry

Format: Online
Number of Interns: 5
Duration of the Internship: 8 weeks
Start Date: July 1st
Finish Date: August 30th
Application Deadline: June 1st
Project Supervisor: Nilüfer Yapıcı, PhD.

Project Description: This internship project is part of an ongoing longitudinal research study examining how battery electric vehicles (BEVs)are discursively constructed as the dominant and ethically legitimate pathway for sustainable mobility.

The project uses large-scale archival data collected from Nexis Uni, including media articles, corporate communications, policy texts, and industry reports. Building on a pilot conference study (2024–2025), the internship focuses on extending the analysis backward in time, covering the period 2018–2024, in order to examine how sustainability narratives, consensus-building mechanisms, and counter-narratives evolved before, during, and after the COVID-19 period.

Due to the very large volume of archival material per year, the project is structured as a distributed qualitative coding effort, with student teams assigned to specific years. Interns will be trained in qualitative coding, abductive analysis, and the use of structured codebooks to analyze sustainability narratives and discursive strategies in the BEV industry.

Research Intern Responsibilities:

• Conduct qualitative coding of archival texts collected from Nexis Uni
• Apply a pre-developed coding framework (structural and in vivo codes) using NVivo
• Code texts related to:
  • Sustainability narratives
  • Consensus-building mechanisms
  • Discursive techniques (e.g., erasure of social costs, affective framing)
  • Counter-hegemonic and alternative technology narratives
• Work in year-based teams (each team responsible for one calendar year)
• Maintain coding consistency through:
  • Code definitions
  • Decision rules (“code if / don’t code if”)
  • Regular calibration checks
• Produce brief analytical memos summarizing dominant themes and notable shifts for their assigned year
• Participate in periodic group meetings to discuss emerging patterns and challenges

Required Skills and Qualifications

• Strong interest in:
  • Sustainability
  • Climate change
  • Technology and society
  • Electric vehicles and energy transitions
• Basic familiarity with qualitative research (no prior NVivo experience required; training provided)
• Ability to read and analyze English-language texts
• Attention to detail and ability to work with large textual datasets
• Willingness to follow coding protocols and collaborate in research teams
• Background in management, sociology, political science, economics, or related fields is an advantage

Expected Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the internship, students will:

• Gain hands-on experience in qualitative archival research
• Learn how to:
  • Code large-scale textual data
  • Apply abductive reasoning in qualitative analysis
  • Work with theory-driven and data-driven codes
• Develop familiarity with qualitative analysis software and professional qualitative research workflows
• Understand how sustainability narratives are constructed, stabilized, and contested across time
• Improve analytical thinking, memo writing, and collaborative research skills
• Contribute meaningfully to an international academic research project with publication potential

Click for Google Form.