Towards a Cultural Analysis: The Need for Ethnography in Interpretation Research

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua E. Hunter
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Prominent Component ◽  
Social Act

The author examines a decade of interpretation research and focuses on the limited amount of qualitative research available, especially ethnographic. This highlights a trend in which there is a substantial absence of work derived from qualitative perspectives and even when studies are considered qualitative they are overwhelmingly geared towards individual visitor outcomes and large-scale studies and surveys. Drawing upon anthropological insights ethnography as both method and substance is explored. An argument is presented that ethnography, in its attention to context, making connections, shared social interactions, and holism is keenly suited to the study of interpretation and perhaps the best way of exploring meaning making, a prominent component of the field. Interpretation research is missing an important cultural analysis of the practice of interpretation, and ethnography offers a unique and invaluable lens by which to study interpretation as a cultural and social act.

Qualitative semiotics: Can we research consumer meaning-making?

2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (5) ◽  
pp. 478-491
Author(s):  
Chris Barnham
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Concept Formation ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Semiotic Model ◽  
Meaning Creation ◽  
Consumer Cognition ◽  
Marketing Profession ◽  
Peircean Semiotics

The notion of “meaning” is central to marketing because it is only through the making of meaning that “added value” can be created. The marketing profession has several models of how such meaning is created, but Peircean semiotics can shed further light on the activity of meaning-making itself and the stages that are involved in this process. This article explores the differences between Peircean and Saussurian semiotics and discusses how these two semiotic traditions construe meaning creation. In particular, it applies the Peircean semiotic model of meaning-making to the notion of concept formation, and the classificatory aspects of this process. This enables convergences to be identified between qualitative research methodologies and semiotics. This, in turn, opens up the possibility of a new kind of qualitative research that understands, and explores, how individual consumers form their concepts. It does this by identifying the semiotic structures that are involved in this process. It will be argued that the resulting framework of “Qualitative Semiotics” has the potential to take semiotics beyond the remit of cultural analysis and to refocus it on processes of individual consumer cognition.

Evaluating Qualitative Research

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeasik Cho
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Research Community ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Journal Editors ◽  
The Past ◽  
Grant Proposals

This book provides the qualitative research community with some insight on how to evaluate the quality of qualitative research. This topic has gained little attention during the past few decades. We, qualitative researchers, read journal articles, serve on masters’ and doctoral committees, and also make decisions on whether conference proposals, manuscripts, or large-scale grant proposals should be accepted or rejected. It is assumed that various perspectives or criteria, depending on various paradigms, theories, or fields of discipline, have been used in assessing the quality of qualitative research. Nonetheless, until now, no textbook has been specifically devoted to exploring theories, practices, and reflections associated with the evaluation of qualitative research. This book constructs a typology of evaluating qualitative research, examines actual information from websites and qualitative journal editors, and reflects on some challenges that are currently encountered by the qualitative research community. Many different kinds of journals’ review guidelines and available assessment tools are collected and analyzed. Consequently, core criteria that stand out among these evaluation tools are presented. Readers are invited to join the author to confidently proclaim: “Fortunately, there are commonly agreed, bold standards for evaluating the goodness of qualitative research in the academic research community. These standards are a part of what is generally called ‘scientific research.’ ”

scholarly journals How Children Decode Visual Narrative in Gaiman’s and McKean’s The Wolves in the Walls

2013 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chrysogonus Siddha Malilang
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Visual Narrative ◽  
Unique Combination ◽  
Hermeneutic Circle ◽  
Complicated Process ◽  
Words And Images

ABSTRAK Bagaimana Anak Mengkode-ulang Narasi Visual dalam The Wolves in the Walls karya Gaiman dan McKean. Buku cerita bergambar sebagai teks untuk anak-anak merupakan kombinasi unik dari kata-kata dan gambar. Dua elemen yang saling terkait sama lain menciptakan inter-animasi bersama dalam membangun makna. Para ahli telah lama mempercayai bahwa proses membaca buku cerita bergambar melibatkan proses yang rumit dalam lingkaran hermeneutik. Namun, karena buku cerita bergambar terutama ditujukan untuk anak-anak, maka proses tersebut terjadi dalam pikiran sadar mereka. Oleh karena itu, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengungkapkan proses pembuatan makna anak dalam narasi visual buku cerita bergambar yang mana dalam penelitian ini menggunakan karya Gaiman, The Wolves in the Walls. Setelah melalui serangkaian penelitian kualitatif dengan lima anak di Inggris, aspek yang diteliti dalam penelitian ini adalah gaya bercerita, penggambaran pengalaman, dan tempat. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa anak-anak membaca buku cerita bergambar dengan cara yang berbeda dari orang dewasa, terutama dalam strategi yang digunakan untuk membaca teks yang panjang dan rumit. Kata kunci: cerita bergambar, gaya bercerita, penggambaran pengalaman, tempat, lingkaran hermeneutik  ABSTRACT Picturebook as a text for children is a unique combination of words and images. Those two elements are interrelated into one another, creating a mutual interanimation in constructing the meaning. Experts have long believed that the process of reading picturebook involves a complicated process of hermeneutic circle. However, since picturebook is mainly aimed for children, the process happens subconsciously within their mind. Therefore, this research aims to reveal children’s meaning making process in visual narrative of picturebook, in this research is Gaiman’s The Wolves in the Walls. After a series of qualitative research with fi ve children in UK, the aspects to research are style, projection of experience, and setting. The result shows that children read the picturebook in a different way than adult, alongside their strategy to cope with long and complicated text. Keywords: picturebook, style, projection of experience, setting, hermeneutic circle

scholarly journals PENDIDIKAN KARAKTER: AKTIVITAS KETERLIBATAN SUKARELAWAN MUDA ERA MODERN BEKERJA SECARA DARING DAN LURING

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 96-102
Author(s):  
Muhammad Mona Adha ◽  
Eska Prawisudawati Ulpa
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Young People ◽  
Character Education ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Practical Skills ◽  
Ethnographic Approach ◽  
People Participation ◽  
Self Development

Abstract: Young people participation would be runs to the maximum by being given the opportunity and place to be creative carried out as volunteers. The experience and learning process of working both online and offline voluntarily can increase the knowledge, practical skills, and experience of every volunteer. Qualitative research with an ethnographic approach is implemented to find the context and social interactions that occur between volunteers and the environment in which they are active. Opportunities for self-development through acts of sincere and noble service become significant to continue to be developed in the midst of society and become a habituation as a form of strengthening character and character so that character education can continue to be turned on and become a servant for themselves and for people around them. 

scholarly journals Automated monitoring of behavior reveals bursty interaction patterns and rapid spreading dynamics in honeybee social networks

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (7) ◽  
pp. 1433-1438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Gernat ◽  
Vikyath D. Rao ◽  
Martin Middendorf ◽  
Harry Dankowicz ◽  
Nigel Goldenfeld ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Communication Networks ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Reference Network ◽  
Interaction Patterns ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Automated Monitoring ◽  
Phone Calls

Social networks mediate the spread of information and disease. The dynamics of spreading depends, among other factors, on the distribution of times between successive contacts in the network. Heavy-tailed (bursty) time distributions are characteristic of human communication networks, including face-to-face contacts and electronic communication via mobile phone calls, email, and internet communities. Burstiness has been cited as a possible cause for slow spreading in these networks relative to a randomized reference network. However, it is not known whether burstiness is an epiphenomenon of human-specific patterns of communication. Moreover, theory predicts that fast, bursty communication networks should also exist. Here, we present a high-throughput technology for automated monitoring of social interactions of individual honeybees and the analysis of a rich and detailed dataset consisting of more than 1.2 million interactions in five honeybee colonies. We find that bees, like humans, also interact in bursts but that spreading is significantly faster than in a randomized reference network and remains so even after an experimental demographic perturbation. Thus, while burstiness may be an intrinsic property of social interactions, it does not always inhibit spreading in real-world communication networks. We anticipate that these results will inform future models of large-scale social organization and information and disease transmission, and may impact health management of threatened honeybee populations.

Resonance, Bach, and Noisy Congregations

2020 ◽  
pp. 49-70
Author(s):  
Mark Porter
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Musical Performance ◽  
Set Up

This chapter takes, as its starting provocation, Tanya Kevorkian’s suggestion that performances of Bach’s cantata compositions would originally have taken place within a somewhat noisy social environment. Drawing from the wider field of literature on listening and noise in other historical and contemporary contexts, it examines the potential for sonic interactions between different actors to set up patterns of social resonance. It draws out the consequences of taking these sonic and social interactions seriously in understandings of musical performance and experience. Many analyses consider noise primarily as a distraction to attentive listening. This chapter, however, highlights its role in processes of meaning making and in establishing different sets of relationships between performers, congregation, and the divine.

scholarly journals Word of Mouth, Viral Marketing and Open Data: A Large-Scale Simulation for Predicting Opinion Diffusion on Ethical Food Consumption

2019 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Agostino G. Bruzzone ◽  
Matteo Agresta ◽  
Jen Hsien Hsu
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Choice Model ◽  
Open Data ◽  
Viral Marketing ◽  
The Social ◽  
First Results ◽  
Individual Opinion ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Individual Choices

AbstractThis paper presents the first results of a large-scale-Agent-Based Simulation devoted to simulate individual behaviour inside a medium sized city (600,000 inhabitants). Humans are simulated as Intelligent Individual entities characterized by several attributes created from the Open Data available by means of a multi-layer approach. The work presented is divided into two main parts: the first part aims to describe the multi-layer approach adopted with the inclusion of the social network layer devoted to capture how social networks can be correlated with human activities and how an “Individual Opinion” can changes based on social interactions. The second part is devoted to present a preliminary case study for simulating the propagation dynamics of the individual opinion in the form of an ethical value function. The basic idea is to capture the changes in the individual opinion based on the social interactions predicted by the simulation. Finally, a food choice model for predicting individual choices based on the individual opinion function is presented; the model is based on three parameters: accessibility of ethical shops, price difference with standard products, and ethical value propagation.

Consumer Meaning Making: The Meaning of Luxury Brands in a Democratised Luxury World

2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 391-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liselot Hudders ◽  
Mario Pandelaere ◽  
Patrick Vyncke
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Luxury Brands ◽  
Luxury Brand ◽  
Brand Meaning ◽  
Individual Difference Variables ◽  
Consumer Perspective ◽  
Universal Definition ◽  
Definition Of

The nature of luxury is constantly changing and this makes it difficult to formulate a universal definition of luxury brands. The current paper aims to enrich the understanding of luxury brand meaning from a consumer perspective. In particular, this paper investigates consumers' perceptions of luxury brands based on the extent to which they associate various attributes to luxury brands. A large-scale survey in the Flemish part of Belgium reveals three facets of luxury brand meaning: an expressive facet that refers to the exclusivity of luxury brands, an impressive-functional facet that refers to premium quality and an impressiveemotional facet that refers to extraordinary aesthetic aspects. In addition, the current study distinguishes three consumer segments (i.e. impressive, expressive and mixed segment) that differ from each other for the importance they attach to these facets of luxury brand meaning. The impressive segment associates luxury brand meaning with both impressive-functional and impressive-emotional facets, while the expressive segment associates luxury brand meaning with the expressive facet, rather than with impressive facets. The third segment, mixed group, thinks both expressive and impressive facets of luxury brand meaning need to be present before a brand can be categorised as luxury brand. In addition, the current study extends previous segmentations by providing a detailed profile of the segments. In particular, this study shows that the views are differentially related to both individual difference variables and various aspects of individual well-being (i.e. self-esteem and negative affect).

scholarly journals Story Completion: Storying as a Method of Meaning-Making and Discursive Discovery

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 160940691989315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Gravett
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Education Research ◽  
Data Analysis ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Analytical Approach ◽  
Experimental Approach ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Story Completion

This article focuses on a method of data collection that exists in the margins of qualitative research: story completion. Story completion has a background of usage within disciplines such as psychology, feminist theory, and psychotherapy. However, this method is still uncommon and underutilized and has not been widely put to work as an approach for qualitative education research, despite its rich potential as a tool for accessing participants’ meaning-making. In this article, I argue that story completion can serve as an interesting and flexible method for researchers across the disciplines, particularly for those looking to adopt a post-structuralist lens, concerned with discursive discovery: the surfacing of discourses individuals draw upon to write. I introduce and explain a divergent approach to doing story completion from that described elsewhere in the literature, where a story completion exercise is enhanced by the addition of a traditional semi-structured interview. I also share an experimental approach to data analysis: using a rhizomatic perspective to analyze story completion data. Ultimately, I argue that story completion, the story-mediated interview, and a more experimental analytical approach offer exciting new directions for qualitative researchers to pursue.

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