Qualitative research in crisis: A narrative-practice methodology to delve into the discourse and action of the unheard in the COVID-19 pandemic

Julie Boéri*, Deborah Giustini

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper develops and applies a methodology of qualitative inquiry that equips researchers to capture how social actors produce and contest accepted forms of knowledge at the margins of mainstream globalizing discourses in times of crisis. Standing at the intersection between conceptual and empirical research, our methodology builds on the common epistemological premises of ‘narrative’, as stories constructed and enacted in social life, and ‘practice’, as tasks and projects composed by ‘doings’ and ‘sayings’. Overcoming the dualism between ‘action’ and ‘discourse’ in traditional social theory, this methodology integrates narrative theory and practice theory into a joint framework for fieldwork and interviews. The use of the narrative-practice methodology in ethnographic case studies – such as interpreters’ experience of the COVID-19 pandemic in Qatar – allows researchers to gain analytical granularity on participants’ storied practice and practiced stories of the crisis, to harness ‘peripheral’ knowledge and refashion public discourse.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)412-432
Number of pages21
JournalQualitative Research
Volume24
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2024

Keywords

  • Covid-19
  • Crisis
  • Ethnography
  • Fieldwork
  • Interpreting
  • Interviews
  • Narrative
  • Practice
  • Qatar

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