KWALON - Volume 26, Issue 3, 2021

Truth and interpretation in ethnography (part 1): Tracking clues with marginalized groups and uniformed professions

This essay is the first part of a reaction to Beuving’s discussion on evidence and truth in ethnography (KWALON 74). Gigengack stresses that ethnography is inferential and involves interpretation work. Whereas social scientists may shy away from “truth,” and prefer “reality,” philosophies of truth illuminate empirical ethnography. Taking the Goffman/Mead controversies as histories of truth, Gigengack discusses created, relative, powerful, and holistic truths on the basis of these ethnographies. It brings Gigengack to a critique of functionalist-empiricist ethnography, and to point out the subjectivist and objectivist fallacies in the ethnographic practice of making truths through social facts.

Undercover ethnography and perpetrator research in Syria

Research on perpetrators of mass violence in authoritarian contexts is beset by a number of challenges, most importantly the difficulty of managing subject positionality and transparency. For my research on Syrian perpetrators I resorted to the method of undercover ethnography in order not to jeopardize myself and my interviewees, and to circumvent the double prohibitive contexts of the secrecy of the topic, and the censorship of the Syrian government.

The observed researcher: opportunities and challenges for observational research among corporate investigators

This contribution discusses observational research within the context of corporate investigations. Corporate investigators are themselves keen observers of human behavior, and as such, observation of these professionals results in an interesting researcher-participant dynamic. By playing with (assumed and ascribed) roles, much information can be gathered about the daily reality of corporate investigators and how they experience this. Building trust is both essential and challenging because of professional skepticism, however, once trust was established, participants actively contributed to the research. By assuming ignorance or, conversely, knowledge in a dynamic manner, the researcher was able to make use of the roles ascribed to her based on age, gender and education level.

Metaphor identification in order to describe what meaning patients associate with their experiences with a nurse practitioner

To explore interpretations and meanings of individuals’ experiences, it is normal to conduct open in-depth interviews. Asking participants to express their meanings and beliefs through metaphors or other symbolic representations can enhance insight in their experiences. Also it will support those who find it difficult to describe their feelings in words alone.

This article describes some methodological considerations, the process of using and analyzing metaphors, and the identified metaphors.

The article ends by reflecting on the impact of using metaphors as a way to collect experiences, both from the researcher and participant perspective. Furthermore, we recommend using metaphors or other symbolic representations in future research studying lived experiences and meanings participants associate with these experiences.