Reflections on Doing Cross-Cultural Research Through and with Visual Methods
AbstractAs a traditional and dominant practice of qualitative research, interviewing is heavily dependent on meanings constructed by language. In a cross-cultural setting, the challenge of adequately capturing what interviewees want to convey is well acknowledged by researchers. Indeed, meanings are not only tied to linguistic meanings but also to cultural practices. Moreover, when the focus of one’s research is to understand the mindsets and practices of farmers, focusing solely on spoken words may also hide the fact that farmers also engage with plants, soil and nature through emotions and feelings. In this chapter I will reflect on my personal experiences as a non-Japanese Asian researcher working with an interpreter during my field work in Japan. In the interviews I conducted with farmers, I used photographs of local artwork to elicit information to understand what relationships they may build between the artworks and their farming practices. I used photo elicitation to supplement the limitations of language in making sense of meanings tied to farming practices. Also, to convey results to a western audience, I explore the use of visual illustrations to complement verbal quotes to more fully convey the meaning of the quotes. Two main observations emerged from this cross-cultural experience: first, the gap between language and cultural meaning can provide valuable opportunities for researchers to experiment with different methods, that broaden our sensibilities beyond rational reasoning in data collection; second, using photography in interviews can unfold different layers of realities than talk-only interviews. I argue that visual methods can take us beyond language and open up a more diverse picture to understand the practices of farmers. It is therefore important for cross-cultural researchers to be reflexive about the limitations of language, transform these challenges to an opportunity to remake method and open up different layers of understanding.
