Semi structured interviews, 48 renters, three cities, thematic analysis

Sociology research poster example

Forty eight interviews with renters about why they stop reporting repairs, laid out as an A0 portrait board that leads with the question rather than the finding. The headline is the question a passer by can answer in their head, and the four reasons sit underneath in the renters own words.

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The whole board

The poster at full size, exactly as it prints. Every number, citation and caption on it was written for this example, so the layout is being judged on real content.

KU
Housing and tenancy research
Why do renters stop reporting repairs? Forty eight interviews across three cities
D. Okonjo ¹, L. Ferreira ¹ ²
1 School of Sociology, Kingsmere University · 2 Centre for Housing and Everyday Life, Kingsmere University
WHAT WE DID
Design. Semi structured interviews and thematic analysis. No hypothesis was set before fieldwork and the topic guide was revised twice as themes appeared.
Recruitment. Six tenant unions across three cities posted the call to their members; no landlord, agent or housing provider was involved at any point.
Sample. 48 renters in private tenancies of at least 12 months, interviewed for 41 to 68 minutes, 17 in city A, 16 in city B and 15 in city C.
Coding. Two researchers coded independently in NVivo, 12 of the 48 transcripts double coded, Cohen kappa 0.81 on the final code frame.
Ethics. Approved by the university human research committee. No tenancy, address or landlord identifier was recorded, and quotes were checked with the speaker.
PARTICIPANT FLOW
Tenants contacted through six unions
214
No reply or declined
112
Screened for eligibility
102
Not eligible or had moved out
54
Interviews completed and coded
48
Transcripts double coded for reliability
12
Four reasons, in the renters words
Fear of a rent rise was named in 31 of the 48 interviews and was usually the first reason given. One renter put it plainly: "The last person who complained about the oven got a notice two months later." Past inaction came second, in 27 interviews, and was described as learned rather than decided: "I reported the leak three times in one year, so now I put a bucket under it." Nineteen renters did not know what the landlord was required to do, and several believed the repair would be charged to them. Nine described the report itself as the obstacle, either because the portal was in English only or because it demanded photographs, a tenancy number and a preferred time before it would accept anything at all. Only four renters in the sample described a landlord who had ever fixed a fault first and asked questions afterwards, and all four were in tenancies of more than six years.
n
A
B
C
D
08162432
Figure 1. Interviews naming each reason: A rent rise 31, B past inaction 27, C rights 19, D language 9.
Source: coded transcripts, 48 interviews, three cities, 2026.
What this means
Read together the four reasons describe one thing rather than four. Reporting a repair is not a neutral administrative act for these renters; it is a move in a relationship where the other side controls whether the tenancy continues and at what price. That reframes the drop in complaint data. A falling report rate in a market with rising rents and short fixed terms is at least as likely to measure a shift in what renters believe reporting will cost them as it is to measure a housing stock getting better. It also explains why the three renters in the sample who reported the most faults were the three on long social housing leases, where the rent is set by a formula and a notice cannot follow a complaint. Their accounts were the only ones in which a repair was described as routine.
The question
Repair reporting rates are read as a measure of housing quality, which only works if renters report when something breaks. Complaint data from the three cities in this study shows a drop of about a third in reports per tenancy over five years, at the same time as inspection records show no improvement in the condition of the stock. One of those two things is wrong. This study asks the renters. It does not ask whether a repair was needed, whether it was fixed, or whether the landlord met a legal duty. It asks what happened inside the tenancy between the fault appearing and the decision not to report it, and it treats that decision as something people can explain rather than something to be inferred from a count, which is what complaint data forces a reader to do.
31 of 48
renters feared a rent rise if they reported
65% of the sample, named in every one of the three cities
Where this goes next
The obvious next step is a paired design: complaint records and interviews from the same tenancies, so that what a renter says they did not report can be set against what the landlord received. A second step is to test the portal itself, since nine renters described the form as the barrier rather than the landlord, and a portal is far easier to change than a rental market.
31 of 48 renters feared a rent rise if they reported
27 had reported before and seen nothing happen
19 did not know what the landlord was required to fix
Report counts measure fear as much as housing quality
REFERENCES
1.Calder, N. and Iversen, H. (2025) Silence in the tenancy: non reporting as a housing outcome. Journal of Urban Sociology, 41(3), 288 to 311.
2.Mwangi, A. (2024) Coding repair narratives: reliability in small interview samples. Qualitative Methods Review, 12(1), 55 to 72.
3.Prosser, E., Baptiste, R. and Lund, M. (2026) Fixed terms and complaint behaviour in three rental markets. Kingsmere Housing Papers 2026-02.

Block by block

What each block on the board is for, in the order a reader walks it.

Eyebrow, question headline and authors
A short eyebrow naming the field sits above the question, which runs across three lines as the largest text on the board. Two authors and their two affiliations sit under it with generated superscripts, and a QR code sits at the right.
What we did
Five labelled method entries: semi structured interviews with thematic analysis and no hypothesis set beforehand, recruitment through six tenant unions with no landlord involved, 48 renters interviewed for 41 to 68 minutes, two coders with a kappa of 0.81, and the ethics position on identifiers.
Participant flow
A flow with exclusions branching to the side: 214 tenants contacted, 112 who did not reply or declined, 102 screened for eligibility, 54 not eligible or moved out, 48 interviews completed and 12 transcripts double coded for reliability.
Four reasons, in the renters words
Fear of a rent rise in 31 interviews, past inaction in 27, not knowing what the landlord must do in 19, and the reporting portal itself in 9. Each carries a quote under 25 words, and most renters named more than one reason.
Figure and headline count
A bar chart counts the interviews naming each reason, keyed A to D in the caption so the axis stays legible at a metre. Beside it a key number block reads 31 of 48, with the detail line giving the 65% and noting that the reason appeared in all three cities.
What this means
The four reasons describe one thing: reporting is a move in a relationship where the other side sets the rent and can end the tenancy. That reframes falling complaint counts as a measure of fear as much as of housing quality.
Where this goes next and references
A short block proposes a paired design using complaint records and interviews from the same tenancies, and a test of the portal itself. Four checked points and three numbered references close the board.

What makes this board work

The headline is a question

A board that opens with a question gets answered in the reader head before they reach the method, which is the only reliable way to stop somebody walking past. The eyebrow above it names the field so the question is not mistaken for a slogan.

Quotes are short enough to be read standing up

Each of the four themes carries one quote under 25 words. A poster is not a paper, and a 60 word quote at a metre is a wall. The count of interviews sits beside every theme so the qualitative claim is still countable.

The recruitment flow reconciles

214 contacted, 112 with no reply or a refusal, 102 screened, 54 not eligible, 48 interviewed and 12 double coded. Qualitative posters are usually vague about recruitment; this one shows it as a flow a reader can check.

Questions people ask

What goes on a sociology research poster?

The question, how people were recruited and how many, what was asked, how it was coded and by whom, the themes with a short quote each, and what the themes mean together. A reliability figure such as a kappa belongs on the board, because it is the first thing a methods reviewer looks for.

How do I show qualitative work without a chart?

Count something honest. This board counts the interviews in which each reason was named, which is a frequency rather than a statistic, and says so in the caption. A recruitment flow, a code frame and the number of double coded transcripts all give a qualitative board something concrete to show.

How long should a poster quote be?

Under 25 words. Anything longer stops being a quote and becomes a paragraph, and it will not be read at a poster session. Pick the sentence that carries the theme rather than the sentence that explains it, and put the explanation in your own words beside it.

How many themes fit on one board?

Four is comfortable at A0 portrait, five is tight and six means something gets one line. This board carries four in a single results block with a quote each. If you have more, group them, or split the poster into a themes board and a method board rather than shrinking the type.

What font size survives a metre of distance?

Body text on this board is near 24 pixels on a 1656 by 2340 canvas, which prints at about 12 millimetres. Headings run two to three times that. The test is simple: stand back from your screen at arm length and a half, and read the smallest block you have.

Can I change the layout after it is generated?

Yes. Every block on the board is its own component. You can retype the question, add or remove a flow node, change the chart type, resize a section or delete it. Nothing is recalculated for you, so a number changed in one block has to be changed in the others.

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Sources

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