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Voice, Context, and Narrative in Aging Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2010

Jaber F. Gubrium
Jaber F. Gubrium
Affiliation:
University of Florida
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Abstract

A central question of social research is how experience is given voice in everyday life. Conventional methodologies provide technical answers: Issues of contextuality and the socially constructive and narrative features of method are not so much analytic and critical concerns as they are construed as procedural problems. This paper considers the question in aging research. Two sides of an analytic tension are addressed as they bear on method, one centred on voice and narrative and the other on the contextuality of experience. Observational and narrative material from qualitative studies of adults and elderly people is used to argue that a focus on ordinary, narrative practice usefully sustains the tension to provide the basis for a critical empiricism.

Résumé

La façon dont l'expérience est utilisée dans le cadre du quotidien constitue l'une des principales questions en matière de recherche sociale. Les méthodologies conventionnelles fournissent des réponses techniques. Toutefois, les questions contextuelles et les aspects méthodologiques sur le plan de la structure sociale et de la narration ne constituent pas des préoccupations analytiques et critiques, elles sont plutôt considérées comme des problèmes de procédé. Cet article étudie cette question au plan de la recherche sur le vieillissement. Deux facettes de la tension analytique sont examinées car elles ont une incidence sur la méthode, la première se concentre sur la voix et la narration, et la seconde sur le contexte de l'expérience. Les arguments se fondent sur des données d'observations et de narrations tirées d'études menées auprès d'adultes et de personnes âgées. Ceux-ci servent à démontrer qu'en se concentrant sur une pratique narrative ordinaire, on peut maintenir la tension formant la base de l'empirisme critique.

Keywords

VoiceContextNarrativeAging Research.Avoir voixcontextenarrationrecherche sur vieillissement.
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement , Volume 14 , Issue S1 , Été/Summer 1995 , pp. 68 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Association on Gerontology 1995

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