Contexts and recontextualisation

Libby BishopESDS Qualidata, University of Essex

Context Workshop - QUADSSouthbank University, London

3 May 2006

Context for “secondary” data

• The objective is not to recreate original context (which is not possible), but rather…

• …to recontextualise data

‘Secondary’ analysis

“Thus secondary analysis is not the analysis of pre-existing data; rather ‘secondary analysis’ involves the process of re-contextualising data… [T]hrough recontextualisation, the order of the data has been transformed, thus secondary analysis is perhaps more usefully rendered as primary analysis of a different order of data.” (Moore, 2005)

Levels of contexts

Holstein and Gubrium (in Seale, 04)

van den Berg (FQS, 05)

Institutional, cultural

Extra-discursive

Situational Conditions of discursive production

Conversational, interact ional

Intra-discursive

Contexts and reusing dataOriginal project

Current project

“Data” records

transcripts, audio, etc.

transcripts, often no more

Interview setting

room, dress, appearance

often not documented

Project original questions, messy analysis

new questions, ‘official methodology’

Cultural,institutional

relevance depends on the res. Q

relevance depends on the res. Q

So, how much context?

• It always depends…on research goals, questions, data, but

• We have to start somewhere– Conversational context (interview)

– Situational context– Institutional context

• Project context• Cultural context

Metadata for model transcript output

Study Name <titlStmt><titl>Mothers and Daughters</titl></titlStmt>

Depositor <distStmt><depositr>Mildred Blaxter</depositr></distStmt>

Interview number <intNum>4943int01</intNum>Date of interview <intDate>3 May 1979</intDate>Interview ID <persName>g24</persName>Date of birth <birth>1930</birth>Gender <gender>Female</gender>Occupation <occupation>pharmacy assistant</occupation>Geo region <geoRegion>Scotland</geoRegion>Marital status <marStat>Married</marStat>

Minimal contextual metadata for interviews (and full transcript)

Situational context

• “Knowable or visible” background characteristics-all participants

• Place, time, setting• Selection and recruitment

(project knowledge, gatekeepers) vdBerg, 2005(n.b. TEI supports these categories)

Cultural context

• Project– Objectives– Any published methodology– Unpublished analyses– Funding source(s)

• Cultural/institutional

Cultural context is most difficult

• Defining men “interrupting” women is linked to context of social structures of gender inequality

• In one study, contexts shaped not the themes found, but their framing (Armstrong, 97)

• Health and food example

Transparency in original project is best foundation for recontextualisation

Selected references

• Hammersley, 1997• Moore, 2006• Van den Berg, 2005• Holstein and Gubrium, 2004• Armstrong, et al., 1997

Other matters…

• When is the call for “more context” actually functioning as “immunisation against possible criticism”? (van den Berg, 2005)