1. The production of data
Jan Blommaert

2. Fieldwork produces tons of information
On the topic
On our own learning trajectory
Combined in the archive
This information is not yet ‘data’
The transition from information to data is a monological intervention
‘the field’ no longer an interlocutor
Interlocutor = your own logic

3. ‘data’ are a theory-governed artefact
NOT the fieldwork materials
But fieldwork materials mediated by theory
‘re-voicing’: fieldwork materials are extracted out of the communication that generated them (voice of the informant)
And ‘re-centered’ towards the voice of (your) theory
Assumption: your theory now includes the viewpoint of the informant

4. Your theory A generalizing story
That incorporates the voice of the ‘field’
Is based on initial and revised hypotheses
And uses ‘data’ as illustrative of the local, situated instantiation of the general story
E.g. Skolts Sami

5. 21/4/08 > Inari
Skolts Sami radio journalist has network of old ladies who advice her on language. Her own knowledge is self-reported as limited, but the radio is Skolts-only. An extreme example of a general principle: that lg resources are unevenly distributed over a community, warranting collaborative work for accomplishing complex lg tasks.
Fieldnotes becoming data

6. So: the production of ‘data’ happens when we generalize and make abstractions
On the basis of what we learned in the field & what we already knew
We now know more because of fieldwork
Data become ‘patterned’ because of this new knowledge

7. Too many data
The feeling of being ‘snowed under’ by ‘data’ (= fieldwork materials)
Means that the learning trajectory is not yet complete (no story yet)
That materials do not yet allow appropriate generalizations
That materials have not yet become ‘data’
‘data’ are a theory-infused selection of materials

8. Solutions Avoid seeing materials as ‘data’
Avoid assumption that the story can only be told with ‘data’
Realize that the materials are about a learning trajectory
Focus on that learning trajectory (don’t pretend not to know)
Focus on the story, data will follow