Toward a Methodology of Encounters

Opening to Complexity in Qualitative Research

Bibliographic Data

ID2385686
AuthorsKatryna Mccoy (0000-0002-1352-3834, corresponding author), Kate Mccoy (SUNY New Paltz)
Year2012
Volume18
Issue9
Pages762-772
Publication date2012-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueQualitative Inquiry (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1077-8004 • E-ISSN: 1552-7565
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1077800412453018
OpenAlexW1965567657
LanguageEN
Citations received32
References cited24

I consider how poststructural orientations to thinking about epistemology and ontology have been enriched by feminist materialist readings of quantum physics. In light of these developments, I suggest that greater complexity might involve opening up qualitative research to a methodology of encounters, an array of interruptive, aleatory practices, attending to encounters that are both accidental and on purpose. I show how this approach has informed my work, intervening in habitual analytics involving scholarly critique and inspiring new ways of dealing with and expanding what might be thought of as data in qualitative research. Refusing the repositivation of qualitative research, I believe that what is at stake is more than just the knowledge we make, it's the worlds we would like to make, the kinds of people we want to be, the kind of work we want to do in the world

Accidental · Epistemology · Materialism · Ontology · Qualitative research · Social science · Sociology · Participatory Visual Research Methods · Philosophy · Posthumanist Ethics and Activism · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics