This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Witz, K. G. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

"Awakening to" an Aspect in the Other

On Developing Insights and Concepts in Qualitative Research

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

This article discusses "awakening to" deeper aspects in a person and "articulating" them and contrasts this way of developing concepts and new understandings in qualitative research with "fashioning concepts at a level of words and phrases in an arena of public discourse." "Awakening to and articulating" may be epistemologically based on C. H. Cooley's (1909/1956) "sympathetic introspection," to the effect that after prolonged contact with a participant or immersion in a social context, where one "absorbed" nuances of feeling, emotion, consciousness, this contact "awakens in oneself a life similar to that in the participant" or social context. The article discusses some of the characteristics of "awakening and articulating," such as the way it involves the consciousness of the investigator, and how it represents a grounded theory approach, and argues that there is a great need to bring concepts developed by "awakening and articulating" into public discourse.

Key Words: consciousness • essentialist portraiture • grounded theory • qualitative methodology • subjectivity • sympathetic introspection

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?