Liminal Zone of Identity Contact in Transnational World: Encounter of Multi-Layered Identities of the Researcher and Respondent in Qualitative Inquiry
Location
DeSantis Room 1047
Format Type
Plenary
Format Type
Paper
Start Date
16-1-2020 10:15 AM
End Date
16-1-2020 10:35 AM
Abstract
The proposal explores liminality and its spaces where a transnational researcher addresses varying negotiations. Building on intersectionality (Walby et al., 2012) and cultural hybridity (Bhabha, 1994) in the context of transnational connectivity (Levitt & Glick-Schiller, 2004), and using methodological tools of critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2010), this study uncovers the complexity in the encounters between the researcher and the participant. Analyses demonstrate how the immigrant status, race/ethnicity, gender, age, and spatial configuration (physical/digital) complicate data collection and interpretation processes. Discussion considers implications of the multi-layered liminality for qualitative inquiry, stemming from (1) transition (van Gennep, 1960) in physical and psychological relocation, (2) affordances of richer cultural and linguistic hybridity (Lam, 2006), and (3) a betwixt status (Turner, 1967) of an unsettled belonging that is always questioned among immigrants (Menjivar, 2006). Methodologically, it considers what it means for a transnational immigrant researcher to enter such acutely complex liminal spaces in which multiple identities and spaces (local/transnational, physical/virtual) are cross-layered, re/positioned, conflicting, and negotiated. Implication highlights how liminal spaces generate tension and uncertainty of interpretation, constantly re/drawing, blurring and crossing boundaries of the transient and anchored identities of the researcher and respondent while also yielding rich sources of investigation for qualitative inquiry.
Keywords
liminality of qualitative inquiry, critical discourse analysis, contact zone, transnational context
Liminal Zone of Identity Contact in Transnational World: Encounter of Multi-Layered Identities of the Researcher and Respondent in Qualitative Inquiry
DeSantis Room 1047
The proposal explores liminality and its spaces where a transnational researcher addresses varying negotiations. Building on intersectionality (Walby et al., 2012) and cultural hybridity (Bhabha, 1994) in the context of transnational connectivity (Levitt & Glick-Schiller, 2004), and using methodological tools of critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2010), this study uncovers the complexity in the encounters between the researcher and the participant. Analyses demonstrate how the immigrant status, race/ethnicity, gender, age, and spatial configuration (physical/digital) complicate data collection and interpretation processes. Discussion considers implications of the multi-layered liminality for qualitative inquiry, stemming from (1) transition (van Gennep, 1960) in physical and psychological relocation, (2) affordances of richer cultural and linguistic hybridity (Lam, 2006), and (3) a betwixt status (Turner, 1967) of an unsettled belonging that is always questioned among immigrants (Menjivar, 2006). Methodologically, it considers what it means for a transnational immigrant researcher to enter such acutely complex liminal spaces in which multiple identities and spaces (local/transnational, physical/virtual) are cross-layered, re/positioned, conflicting, and negotiated. Implication highlights how liminal spaces generate tension and uncertainty of interpretation, constantly re/drawing, blurring and crossing boundaries of the transient and anchored identities of the researcher and respondent while also yielding rich sources of investigation for qualitative inquiry.
Comments
References
Bhabha, H. (1994). The Location of Culture.London: Routledge.
Fairclough, N. (2010). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. New York, NY: Routledge.
Lam, W. S. E. (2006). Culture and learning in the context of globalization: Research directions. Review of Research in Education, 30,213-237.
Levitt, P., & Glick-Schiller, N. (2004). Conceptualizing simultaneity: A transnational social field perspective on society. The International Migration Review, 38(3), 1002-1039.
Menjivar, C. (2006). Liminal legality: Salvadoran and Guatemalan immigrants’ lives in the United States. American Journal of Sociology, 111(4), 999–1037.
Turner, V. W. (1967). The forest of symbols: Aspects of Ndembu ritual (Vol. 101). Cornell University Press.
Van Gennep, A. (1960). The rites of passage. University of Chicago Press.
Walby, S., Armstrong, J. & Strid, S. (2012). Intersectionality: Multiple inequalities in social theory. Sociology, 46(2), 224–240.