Abstract
The title clearly summarizes the essence of the book, highlighting imagination as key to thinking carefully and creatively in interpretative research. Within the qualitative paradigm interpretative methodology has wide popularity. Yet it is difficult to do well unless researchers grapple with the complicated experience of getting immersed in the data and recognize their direct personal involvement in the process. It is exactly this that is an important focus of the book. The authors acknowledge that interpretative research has “intuitive appeal but is intimidating at the same time” (p. 4). This book is not quite what one might expect and has a few surprises in the directions it takes. Readers who anticipate a manual of explicit instruction in interpretative methods could be disappointed. The articulation of a different form of guidance, aligned with the nature of interpretative enquiry, is, however, one of the main contributions of the book.
The volume explores the research process as “embodied craft” (p. 2), an “experiential process of learning-by-doing characterized by “careful interpretation, and reflection” (p. 11). The first few chapters reflect on the authors’ experiences of doing and teaching research through reflecting on their student-mentor relationship. This reflection sets the context with dialogue about common interpretative struggles. The early chapters use many examples to illustrate common misconceptions and ways that interpretative research can go off track. The discussion is heavily interwoven with theories of experiential learning, which underlines exactly what the book stresses about the centrality of the intrapersonal and interpersonal processes at play.
The earlier chapters consider the importance of an appropriate research question as pre-requisite, stating that “no matter how much you read or how many people you interview, your notes or interviews will not magically transform into a research question” (p. 70). It is in the subsequent chapters that the essentials of how the gathering and interpretative analysis of data is fully explored. The authors draw from other seminal works on undertaking qualitative interviews and are clear that they are doing so. Attention to the interviewing process in this text is superb, and the authors acknowledge that practice in interviewing is missing in much teaching and often simplistic in surface-level texts.
On the surface, there may seem to be little explicit relationship to Affilia's fundamental concerns, but there are a few important connections. The partnership between researcher and participant and concepts of control are given particular attention as fundamental to interpretative interviews. In positioning the personal, embodied role of the researcher in the process of sense-making, confronting what the researcher brings from their own awareness becomes essential. “We cannot talk about methods without considering the person who uses the method” (p.17), but a series of defence mechanisms are explored that unconsciously thwart quality studies. Attention to the emotional and physical experience of the research participants and the researcher means that ethics, values, and power in all their aspects need acknowledgement: “Awares or unawares, our actions are always shaped by our beliefs, values, and understandings” (p. 5). The authors claim that “social sciences that are true to their interpretive core have the ability to contribute patient understanding and moral judgement to our collective attempts to harness the irrepressible complexity of our world” (p. 167).
While those embarking on a research project may be drawn to the book, those who teach methods or guide studies will find it invaluable to articulate the “experiential process of learning and teaching interpretive social science research” (p. 6). Rather than provide the answers to exactly how to do interpretative research, the messages about dwelling in the uncertainty and personal crafting of the process give confidence when seeking an appropriate path as a researcher. The concept of crafting is up front in the introductory chapter. Quite simply, the book convinces the reader of why interpretative studies are robust when they have been messy, and this assertion needs no apology. Arriving at interpretative findings is “not some mysterious visitation by brilliant insight. It is the careful and systematic craft of designing and organizing the empirical study of a slice of social reality” (p.17). The book posits that the research findings are the explanation and justification of the methods, where attention to the details of gathering rich data has succeeded in revealing important insights about human experiences.
