Qualitative data Analysis : An introduction Carol Grbich Chapter 8. Postmodernist influences

Postmodern beliefs everything is transitional and non-finite in nature there is capacity to dialogue with other contexts in time and space. the tools, language and processes of discovery (as well as the interpretations and actions of individual researchers) are socially and culturally constructed and require further examination. research processes (and morals, laws etc) are subject to social construction, and have served to maintain the power bases of particular groups. any borders (disciplinary, research approaches, country and culture) are also constructions that can be crossed, incorporated or reconstructed

Display of results To encourage the audience to see and see through, to participate in events and to interpret experiences gained at (almost) first hand by: Disruption and challenges - fragmented and open and closed forms Multiple data sources - multiple narrators and voices Irony; Playfulness, Illusion; Pastiche; Parody; An emphasis on improvisation and satire of others and the self; The use of a variety of visual, textual and other genres

Postmodern influences (1) Politics – minority and political groups become localised Economics – multiskilling, outsourcing, boutique products, managerial and computing skills Architecture – dialogues occur between readable ‘signs’ on buildingsi

Postmodern influences (2) Literature – complex plots, juxtaposition Art and film – viewer focus, bricolage, hyper reality and simulacra, embodiment Knowledge – reality is unknowable, meanings are individual Culture – popular, hybrid, hyper real, simulacra

Postmodern influences (3) Individuals : socially constructed in many contextual but transient groups Fluid and fragmented - alternative structures dominate. Multiple identities and subjectivities Time and space – continuums with links to past and future

Postmodern ideas and qualitative research 1. Postmodernism favours "mini-narratives - small scale situations 2. No pretensions of abstract theory, universality or generaliseability. 3. The explanatory power of metanarratives is downplayed in favour of descriptive documentation. 4. Individual interpretation is paramount, no objective reality, and truth and reality lie in our constructed meanings, 5. Truth is fluid it is limited by the constructions and interpretations of both researcher and researched. 6. Reflexive subjectivity replaces objectivity. Self-reflexivity involves a heightened awareness of the socially constructed self in the process of knowledge creation & how ones values are impacting on interaction, data collection and data analysis

Postmodern ideas and qualitative research (2) 7. Truth, reason and logic are constructed within specific cultural understandings. 8. Realities are multiple subject to endless formation, reformation, construction and reconstruction. 9. ‘validity’ and ‘reliability’ gives way to individually constructed views relative to time and context. Subjectivity is paramount, multiple identities are accepted The researcher and the researched are no longer separate, they interweave their constructed meanings. 10. Postmodernist forms of display include multiple forms of visual, oral, aural and textual data.

Criticisms of postmodernism that pulling apart of situations and the deconstruction of discourses may lead to nihilism that the rejection of objectivity and a lack of certainty make it difficult to come to any solid conclusion; that montages of social reality provide limited information upon which policy decisions can be made; that the rejection of grand narratives and logic and rationality lead to limited theoretical explanations; that privileging, marginalising and truth making are also tools of postmodernists