Unreliable narrators? 'Inconsistency' (and some inconstancy) in interviews

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2403124
AutoresCate Watson (0000-0003-1807-6460, University of Aberdeen, autor de correspondencia)
Año2006
Volumen6
Número3
Páginas367-384
Fecha de publicación2006-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaQualitative Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1468-7941 • E-ISSN: 1741-3109
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1468794106065008
OpenAlexW2141437167
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas23
Referencias citadas20

A potentially problematic aspect of the qualitative interview is the propensity towards tensions that emerge - ambiguities, inconsistencies, contradictions etc. - especially when transcripts are analysed. In this article, I draw on material from an interview in which the presence of contradictory data had surprising results, initially producing shock, but subsequently causing me to reflect on the 'meaning' inherent in these lapses of coherence. In so doing, I present a framework for analysis, based on Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's discourse theory, and suggest that narratives serve to construct the relational process of 'identification with' that links individuals to discourses. This framework enables a kind of situated reliability to emerge from the very aspects of the interview that may be held to be problematic in terms of our being 'unreliable narrators

Aesthetics · Epistemology · Grounded theory · Linguistics · Narrative · Qualitative research · Situated · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Philosophy · Psychology · Qualitative Research Methods and Applications · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Social Psychology