Concepts as a Contour for Inquiry

• In Event: 18.059 - Research Without Method in Post-Qualitative Inquiry

Abstract

Objectives or purposes: In writing about method, Deleuze (1983) explained, “Method in general is a means by which we avoid going to a particular place, or by which we maintain the option of escaping from it” (p. 110). Starting with method, interviewing for example, necessitates that one adopt a particular epistemological and ontological stance that evokes practices described by Williams (2010) as submitting to the “tyranny of evidence.” Examples of such practices in the case of conventional interviewing methods rely on gathering data, documenting what participants say, and trying to determine what they mean by “reducing data to themes, and writing up transparent narratives that do little to critique the complexities of social life” (Jackson & Mazzei, 2012, p. vii). Instead of starting with the subject, or voice, or method in this paper, I present a discussion of the problems I have considered, particularly the problem of voice and how I am thinking voice and inquiry following the contours of Deleuze and Guattari’s ontology that necessitates a rethinking of the individual as the proper ontological unit for inquiry, and instead demands thinking a “subject group,” one expressed by a “collective assemblage of enunciation.” Following concepts as a contour for inquiry, I do not begin with the humanist subject by interviewing her to capture her voice. Instead, I follow the contour of concepts to discuss how I am learning from and with the concept collective assemblage of enunciation, tracing its conditions of creation to create new orientations for thinking and qualitative inquiry.

Perspectives or theoretical frameworks: New Empiricisms/New Materialisms (St.Pierre, Jackson, & Mazzei, 2016) and Post Qualitative Inquiry (St.Pierre 2011)

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry: The author confronts the limits of method by beginning with a concept, in this case the concept developed by Deleuze and Guattari, “collective assemblage of enunciation,” instead of beginning with the conventional humanist method, interviewing.

Data sources/evidence: Theoretical/methodological writings by the author and others.

Significance: In keeping with the purpose of this session, this paper presents a working example of how the author uses Deleuzian concepts as a contour for inquiry to engage the complexities of social life.

References:
Jackson, A. Y. & Mazzei, L. A. (2012). Thinking with theory in qualitative research: Viewing data across multiple perspectives. London, UK: Routledge.

Deleuze, G. (1983). Nietzsche & Philosophy. Translated by Hugh Tomlinson. New York:
Columbia University Press.

St. Pierre, E.A., Jackson, A.Y. & Mazzei, L.A. (2016). New Empiricisms and New Materialisms: Conditions for New Inquiry. Cultural Studies<->Critical Methodologies, 16(2) 99-110.

St.Pierre, E.A. (2011). Post qualitative research: The critique and the coming after. In N.K. Denzin & Y.S. Lincoln (Eds.). Sage Handbook of qualitative inquiry (4th ed.) (pp. 611-635). Sage: Los Angeles, CA.

Williams, J. (2010). Against oblivion and simple empiricism: Gilles Deleuze’s ‘Immanence: a life…’ Journal of Philosophy: A Cross-Disciplinary Inquiry, 5(11), 25-34.

Author

• Lisa A. Mazzei, University of Oregon