Notes: Crystallization. -Ellingson

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.