INTRODUCTION TO CRYSTALLIZATION
-Ellingson
-
where researchers situated themselves along the continuum
of qualitative methods.
- Richardson> creative analytic practices: embody both rigorous data analysis and creative forms of representation. For others this approach ismerely experimental, or even possibly dangerous.
CONCEPT OF CRYSTALLIZATION from Laurel Richardson:
“The scholar draws freely on his or her productions from literary, artistic, and
scientific genres, often breaking the boundaries of each of those as well. In
these productions, the scholar might have different “takes” on the same topic,
what I think of as a postmodernist deconstruction of triangulation. . . . In
postmodernist mixed-genre texts, we do not triangulate, we crystallize. I
propose that the central image for “validity” for postmodern texts is not the
triangle—a rigid, fixed, two-dimensional object. Rather, the central imaginary
is the crystal, which combines symmetry and substance with an infinite
variety of shapes, substances, transmutations, multidimensionalities, and
angles of approach. . . . Crystallization provides us with a deepened, complex,
thoroughly partial, understanding of the topic. Paradoxically, we know
more and doubt what we know. Ingeniously, we know there is always more
to know. (Richardson, 2000b, p. 934, original emphasis)” .
-Crystallization seeks to produce knowledge about a particular phenomenon through generating a deepened, complex interpretation
–
“Crystals are prisms that reflect externalities and refract within themselves, creating different colors, patterns, and arrays, casting off in different directions”
Ellingson: Crystallization:
-an emergent framework for qualitative research in order to accomplish my multigenre goals for ethnographic
and other qualitative work.
-map of the terrain to guide those seeking to learn more, who could benefit from specificity and instructions.
-combines multiple forms of analysis and multiple genres of representation
into a coherent text or series of related texts, building a rich and openly partial
account of a phenomenon that problematizes its own construction, highlights
researchers’ vulnerabilities and positionality, makes claims about
socially constructed meanings, and reveals the indeterminacy of knowledge
claims even as it makes them.
-Scholars who embrace a wide range of methods, practices, and perspectives
can adapt crystallization to their needs and goals.
-not for whom believs to objectivity.
-links between grounded theory and other systematic analyses) and creative genres of representation.
-assumes a basic understanding of the complexities involved in combining methods and genres from across regions of the continuum.
-constellation.
-blending of generic elements may develop into what some call rhetorical hybrids.
– goals, questions posed, methods, writing styles, vocabularies, role(s) of researchers, and criteria for evaluation vary
across the continuum as we move from a realist/positivist social science stance
on the far right, through a social constructionist middle ground, to an artistic/
interpretive paradigm on the left.
– GOALS
construct situated knowledges
To explore the typical
To generate description and
understanding
To trouble the taken-for-granted
To generate pragmatic implications
for practitioners
QUESTIONS
How do participants understand
their world?
How do the participants and author
co-construct a world?
What are the pragmatic implications
of research?
METHODS
Semistructured interviewing
Focus groups
Participant observation/ethnography
Thematic, metaphoric, and narrative
analysis
Grounded theory
Case studies
Participatory action research
Historical/archival research
WRITINGS
Use of first-person voice
Incorporation of brief narratives
inresearch reports
Use “snippets” of participants’ words
Usually a single interpretation, with
implied partiality and positionality
RESEARCHER
Participants are main focus, but
researcher’s positionality is key to
forming findings
VOCABULARIES
Social Constructionist/Postpositivist:
inductive, emergent, intersubjectivity,
process, themes, categories, thick
description, co-creation of meaning, social
construction of meaning, standpoint, ideology
(e.g., feminism, postmodernism, Marxism)
CRITERIA
Flexible criteria
Clarity and openness of processes
Clear reasoning and use of support
Evidence of researcher’s reflexivity
Incorporating differing
forms of analysis and genres enables researchers to cover more ground, incorporating
the researchers’ positionality, contrasting or conflicting points of view,
patterns, and exceptions
– Incorporating differing forms of analysis and genres enables researchers to cover more ground, incorporating
the researchers’ positionality, contrasting or conflicting points of view, patterns, and exceptions.
-including, interweaving, blending, or otherwise drawing upon more than one way of expressing data and/or the world
-we write memos in producing grounded theory analysis,
and researchers accomplish much autoethnographic reflection (i.e., analysis)
through construction of narratives or performances.
-reflexive consideration of the researcher’s self in the process of research design,
data collection, and representation. Reflexivity in research involves “thoughtful,
conscious self-awareness” (Finlay, 2002, p. 532)
– Crystallization celebrates knowledge as inevitably situated, partial, constructed, multiple, and embodied.
-enables sound critique to be coupled with other ways of knowing and of offering suggestions for theory, research, and practice
-triangulation involves an attempt to get closer to the truth by bringing together multiple forms of data and analysis to clarify and enrich a report on a phenomenon. Whereas triangulation seeks a more definitive truth, crystallization problematizes the multiple truths it presents. Unlike triangulation, crystallization is informed by postmodernism, meaning that it presupposes that no truth exists “out there” to discover or get close to, but only multiple and partial truths that researchers (and others) co-construct.