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

Bibliographic Data

ID2403124
AuthorsCate Watson (0000-0003-1807-6460, University of Aberdeen, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume6
Issue3
Pages367-384
Publication date2006-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueQualitative Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1468-7941 • E-ISSN: 1741-3109
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1468794106065008
OpenAlexW2141437167
LanguageEN
Citations received23
References cited20

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