METODE: AT VÆKKE UNDERSØGELSESOBJEKTERNES GENSTRIDIGHED: Om gæringsprocesser i interviewanalyse

Abstract

To analyse and interpret qualitative data is

like putting a puzzle together. In this article it

is argued that the most valuable pieces often

are those which do not fit into the developing

pattern. They are the ones that force one to

widen or reconsider one’s hypothesis, and

thereby disclose new knowledge. In the first

part of the article, this idea is illustrated by

use of a report, based mainly on interviews,

on incentives and barriers to comply with

safety rules in Danish merchant ships.

The analysis of the interviews revealed

many inconsistencies and contradictions

between the answers and even within the

same interviews. This reflects ambivalence

or contrasting feelings or signals (e.g.

contradictory demands from shipowners

and authorities or ambivalence toward the

shipowner or the foreign crew members).

The second part is initiated by setting out the

strange feeling acquired in the course of the

analysis, that at one time the author stopped

mastering what was happening, as if the

statements began to interfere independently

of her own will. The author utilizes some of

the works of Bruno Latour to understand this

feeling. What she experienced, with Latour’s

words, was a transition from objectivity to

“objectory”. In other words the statements

the author was trying to analyse began to

“object” in an obstinate way. She learned

from Latour that she’d better encourage

them to do so, instead of trying to imitate an

alleged disinterested objective research.