You are here

Investigating Subjectivity
Share
Share

Investigating Subjectivity
Research on Lived Experience

Edited by:

Volume: 139

March 1992 | 272 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
Much has been missed by social researchers in their attempt to understand the human experience as a series of rational, cognitive choices. What comes under the rubric of "lived experience" fits no researcher's model other than, in the words of one of the volume's contributors, "one damned thing after another." Human subjectivity in lived experience, both that of the subject and of the researcher, is the topic of Investigating Subjectivity, an important corrective to the cool, disdainful stance of most previous social research. The dozen contributors examine various aspects of subjectivity--the emotions, the gendered nature of experiences, the body-mind relationship, perceptions of time, place and setting, understanding of the self--and how these elements provide a fuller understanding of the human condition. Incorporating subjectivity into research requires a new set of methods--systematic introspection, self-ethnography, staged readings, poetry, stories--many of which are demonstrated in the book. It also requires a focus on mundane (minor ailments, media images, hobbies) and extraordinary elements (exotic trips, earthquakes, abortion experience), which make up the bulk of lived experience and how people react to these life events. Investigating Subjectivity stands out from any others in the field because the emphasis is on research rather than theory or conceptualization. This outstanding volume is quality reading for academicians, undergraduate and graduate students in sociology, cultural studies, qualitative methods, and communication, especially those interested in emotions, narration, textual analysis, and symbolic interaction. "This is an unusual and intriguing book consisting of eleven articles and the authors' excellent, well-written, and probing introduction. The book unflinchingly pursues 'subjectivity' as an important and legitimate object of scientific research. . . . The writers challenge the continuing dominance of eighteenth-century rationalism by challenging the contemporary social science model that 'transforms emotional experience into models of rational action.'" --Perspectives on Political Science "The authors suggest that the volume be judged by whether it provokes feelings in the readers that they have lived, or could live, the experiences described. This reviewer argues that the editors have succeeded in their goal. . . . this reviewer recommends the book to the rehabilitationist who is interested in either conducting research or the application of research to practice. . . . This is an appropriate tool for the rehabilitation professional." --Journal of Applied Rehabilitation Counseling "This volume demonstrates an exciting reinvigoration of interactionism as it collides with phenomenology, existential sociology, and poststructuralism." --Contemporary Sociology

Carolyn Ellis and Michael G Flaherty
An Agenda for the Interpretation of Lived Experience
 
PART ONE: INTERPRETING TEXTS
Norman K Denzin
The Many Faces of Emotionality
Reading

 
 
Persona
Laurel Graham
Archival Research in Intertextual Analysis
Four Representations of a Year in the Life of Dr Lillian Moller Gilbreth

 
Bronwyn Davies
Women's Subjectivity and Feminist Stories
 
PART TWO: CREATING TEXTS
Carolyn Ellis and Arthur Bochner
Telling and Performing Personal Stories
the Constraints of Choice in Abortion

 
Carol Rambo Ronai
The Reflexive Self through Narrative
A Night in the Life of an Erotic Dancer/Researcher

 
Laurel Richardson
The Consequences of Poetic Representation
Writing the Other, Re-Writing the Self

 
 
PART THREE: EXPERIENCING SUBJECTIVITY
Michael G Flaherty
The Erotics of Hermeneutics of Temporality
Gary Alan Fine
Wild Life
Authenticity and the Human Experience of `Natural' Places

 
Mark Neuman
The Trail Through Experience
Finding Self in the Recollection of Travel

 
 
RT FOUR
TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE SELF

 
Virginia Olesen
Extraordinary Events and Mundane Ailments
The Contextual Dialectics of the Embodied Self

 
John Gagnon
The Self, Its Voices, and Their Discord

Select a Purchasing Option


Paperback
ISBN: 9780803944978
$142.00