Documentary interpretation of a participant observation

Reconstruction of introspective modes of perception, thinking and acting as a basis for reflection on one's own location-boundness in qualitative social research.

Abstract

Analytical procedures of the Documentary Method "open up access not only to the reflexive, but also to the action-guiding knowledge of the actors and thus to the action practice" itself (Bohnsack 2017, 9). By means of the method, then, it is possible to tap into, how practice is produced in terms of action practice (Bohnsack, Hoffmann & Nentwig-Gesemann 2018). This characteristic of the documentary method is utilized in the analysis of the present Datum made use of. In the literature, the analysis of participant observation has been means of "getting closer to the lived practice of the actors under study" (Vogd 2020, 343). This allows for a broadening of the analytical gaze, which goes beyond the habitual imprints to be reconstructed. In doing so, the present account focuses on the possibility of analyzing introspective modes of perception with the aim of reflecting on one's own conception of normality. Especially with regard to the reflection of one's own location-boundness.