Vignette Research

Front matter

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BLOOMSBURY RESEARCH METHODS

Edited by Mark Elliot and Jessica Nina Lester

PART TWO Doing Vignette Research 77

3 Starting the Research and Writing Vignettes 79 Analysing Vignettes 113 5 Vignette Fields of Application 125 aN

Vignette Research as a Human Experience 141 The Way Forward 149

N

Notes 157 References 159 Index 171

FIGURES

1 Comparison of contrasting experiential modes in field research 30 2 Contrast between responsive and directed research

approaches 31 3 and 4 Examples of experiential protocols by a vignette

researcher 88

5 and 6 Section of observation notes written in English and in the vignette researcher’s first language (Afrikaans) 97 7 Iceberg model of the emotional world 145 viii

TABLES

1 Similarities with and differences from vignette research 52 2 Examples of sensory and kinaesthetic descriptors 101

SERIES EDITORS’

Foreword

The idea behind this book series is a simple one: to provide concise and accessible introductions to frequently used research methods and to current issues in research methodology. Books in the series have been written by experts in their fields with a brief to write about their subject for a broad audience.

The series has been developed through a partnership between Bloomsbury and the UK’s National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM). The original “what is” series sprang from the eponymous strand at NCRM’s popular Research Methods Festivals which have run biennially since 2004.

This relaunched series reflects changes in the research landscape, embracing research methods innovation and interdisciplinarity. Methodological innovation is the order of the day, and the books provide updates to the latest developments whilst still maintaining an emphasis on accessibility to a wide audience. The format allows researchers who are new to a field to gain an insight into its key features, while also providing a useful update on recent developments for people who have had some prior acquaintance with it. All readers should find it helpful to be taken through the discussion of key terms, the history of how the method or methodological issue has developed, and the assessment of the strengths and possible weaknesses of the approach through analysis of illustrative examples.

This book is devoted to the innovative and provocative topic of vignette research. In this book the authors — Evi Agostini, Michael Schratz and Irma Eloff - introduce researchers to the foundations of vignette research, as well as the process of deploying and evaluating this methodology. The approach to vignette research that Agostini and colleagues present, which has its origins in phenomenology, is one that they have all been integrally involved in x

SERIES EDITORS’ FOREWORD xi developing. They thus offer a nuanced and personal overview of the history of this approach, which at its core is focused on presenting experiences in a way that minimizes the distance between the researchers and researched.

Notably, Agostini and colleagues make explicit the origins of vignette research, and, in so doing, explicate how its links to phenomenology make it unique from other qualitative approaches to research, such as ethnography. Moreover, throughout the book, Agostini and colleagues emphasize that their approach to vignette research focuses on capturing the experiences of others as they occur in the given research context, while the researcher takes a co-experiential position. To this end, they discuss not just why but how vignette research is not about describing an event or experience, but rather showing it to the reader.

What makes their book particularly unique is that it offers both the philosophical foundations of the method, as well as a clear pathway for how to do and evaluate vignette research. As such, readers both familiar with and new to vignette research will find useful insights into both what vignette research is and how to craft a provocative and grounded vignette.

The books in this series aim to equip readers with a broad sense of why a given method deserves to be taken seriously. Indeed, Agostini and colleagues do just this in this book - that is, they illustrate the value of vignette research, and in so doing, make visible its power as a social science research method.

Jessica Nina Lester & Mark Elliot Series editors

FOREWORD

Why is it that so much social scientific research comes across as strangely bloodless and disconnected from the great questions of our time? Universities around the world turn out doctoral students year after year who command impressive knowledge of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, yet for much of the public, their findings often seem to be trivial or irrelevant. It’s not only matters of technical sophistication that can lead many people to keep research at arm’s length. When one considers the emotional intensity of life in both the public and private spheres, the distanced, stilted and dissatisfying nature of so much research leaves one suspicious of the whole enterprise, as if all of the drama and pathos has been drained out of the density of everyday experiences and a desiccated husk is all that remains.

If you’ve ever struggled with similar feelings about the disconnect between the richness of experience and the alienating aspects of so much research, this small jewel of a book is for you. Here, the authors’ aspiration is to write vignettes that place ‘the authors inside events’ (see the section entitled ‘Vignette research as a human experience’) instead of being objectified and estranged from them. This invites researchers to participate in the multifaceted episodes that make up the many overlapping strata of our lives with their whole selves. Just as billions of people across the globe each day encounter not just one another’s intellects, but also their emotions, bodies and imaginations, so researchers should endeavour to get close to these sensations in the quest to understand ‘an invisible world of experiences’ (see the section entitled ‘Vignette research as a human experience’) and to render them capable of closer analysis and further transformation.

What kinds of experiences might ‘vignette researchers’ select for investigation? In vivid descriptions throughout this book, we see people interacting with one another in a myriad of deceptively xii

FOREWORD xiii simple ways that call for closer analysis to unpack their true meaning. We also see researchers who are questioning what they are finding and sharing their writing with their research subjects, thereby promoting the kind of sustained intersubjectivity between insiders and outsiders that can heighten awareness of problems first intuited, and subsequently identified and named in collaboration with vignette researchers. By taking the time to write with meticulous, narrative flair and by combining vignettes with guiding questions, vignette researchers are opening up new venues for investigating just what is happening in our societies and why.

Examples of the kinds of questions raised in this book include: In our quest for ever greater levels of accountability and transparency, are we overlooking the depth and breadth of experiences and forgoing a wealth of opportunities for understanding what is really transpiring and why? In seeking to strengthen the smooth functioning of civil society, are we overlooking opportunities for shared inquiry that might lead to social transformations that could benefit everyone in the long run? In our emphasis upon cognition, are we overlooking the embodied, affective dimensions of human experiences and neglecting to attend to their depth in the process?

These are not trivial questions, but they somehow elude rigorous interrogation in much of mainstream scholarship. The development and pursuit of vignette research, the authors tell us, allows us to explore our assumptions about how society should work, in order to question and probe more deeply than ever before into the nature of our interactions. This requires an initial ‘withholding [of] judgement’ so that the researcher retains their ‘rootedness in the raw data’ (see ‘Show, don’t tell’ section) and its superflux of meanings and implications. This ‘suspension or bracketing of hasty judgement’ (see “The phenomenological attitude’ section) then creates new space for shared dialogue and renewed practice.

It all sounds promising, but one word of warning is warranted for English speakers. Many of the ideas and practices explored in this book emerge from the philosophical tradition of phenomenology and the demands it places upon all of those who want to get up close to practice, with no pretence of elucidating generalizable principles from the superflux of experience. This tradition is linguistically multilayered, drawing upon classical Greek and Latin sources combined with twentieth-century continental philosophical forays that are likely to be unfamiliar to many readers. Stick with xiv FOREWORD the text, however, and soon enough its intellectual demands will become energizing and uplifting. The analysis can and should be read over and over again. Persevere, and you'll find that the descriptions of vignette research yield new possibilities and pleasures with each reading, which open up a plethora of promising ways of understanding social life in its textured, dynamic complexity.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank the many colleagues, vignette research groups, students and anonymous reviewers who contributed in different ways to this book; some provided detailed and invaluable comments on an earlier draft and some contributed their own work. Our particular thanks go to Johanna F. Schwarz, a founding member of Innsbruck Vignette Research (IVR), for her experience report, and to our vignette writers Markus Ammann, Theresa Hauck, Bernhard Nairz, Tamara Peer, Hans Karl Peterlini, Anna Pritz, Johanna F. Schwarz, Tanja Westfall-Greiter and Megan Swart.

We would like to thank the three institutions whose faculties/ centres we were members of during the period in which the book was written — the University of Vienna, the University of Innsbruck and the University of Pretoria — for their academic, administrative, technical, collegial and financial support.

We would also like to thank Fatima-Sahra Al-Khatib for her help during the final phase of completing this book.

We also owe thanks to Sarah Rimmington and Sharon Ball, whose meticulous and exacting translation work opened the door to greater empathy, appreciation and resonance.

Our deep appreciation to researchers and scholars around the world who are embracing vignette research, co-developing this ever-evolving methodology and sharing their wisdom in ways that enrich and deepen our understanding of life and the world we live in.

Vignette Research was published with the support of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF): PUB 1023-P.

Research results from: Austrian Science Fund (FWF): P 22230-G17.

FW Austrian Science Fund

XV

ABBREVIATIONS

IVR Innsbruck Vignette Research PLC Professional Learning Community

SDGs Sustainable Development Goals

Introduction

Dear Reader,

Welcome to our book, which invites you on a journey of exploration into a unique research approach and new ways of involving the researcher and the researched. This journey began in Austria, at the heart of Europe, and has since stopped at many destinations on different continents. Its starting point was the University of Innsbruck, where a research team was awarded a research grant allowing them to explore the nature of student learning.' Learning is based on very personal experiences and makes people who they are, and at the time, the research team was unable to find a suitable research method in either the quantitative or the qualitative research camp.

As the team searched, they came across the quote ‘Meanings only inspired by remote, confused, inauthentic intuitions — if by any intuitions at all — are not enough: we must go back “to the things themselves”’ (Quoted in Moran 2008: 22). This goes back to Edmund Husserl in the years 1900/1901, who introduced phenomenology as a philosophical method. Subsequently, different schools of phenomenology have developed, and have taken many different directions. For those authors among us who have joined this movement, Husserl’s call to go ‘back “to the things themselves”? (ibid.) became a waymarker for the development of a descriptive, phenomenologically oriented approach, which has now taken a firm foothold in the research landscape in the form of vignette research: the study of lived experience.

This volume aims to explore the rich legacy of empirical thinking in an original, innovative, phenomenological exploration of experience as it reveals itself ‘as something’ to the context in which the researcher is interested. The primary target audience is scholars and researchers in the field of vignette research. We have designed this book as a travel guide; on the one hand to lead you into some unexpected terrain within the research landscape, and on the other hand to provide you with empirically verified steps to enable you to deploy vignette research yourself. The usefulness of vignette research has been proven across a variety of disciplines and professions with an interest in experience, because lived experience is terrain that affects us all.

Since this approach has now aroused widespread interest beyond the German-speaking world, we are responding to the wish expressed by many for an English-language introduction to vignette research, and have compiled a ‘best of? list with regard to a variety of fields. The personal gains from any journey depend not least on the expectations you bring to it and the way you prepare for it. So we want to prepare you to encounter some potential irritations, as vignette research is in some respects radically different from traditional approaches.

A first irritation is probably that the descriptive phenomenological approach to the perception of an experience used here does not build on the knowledge we already have, but rather sees such knowledge as an obstacle to advancing ‘to the things themselves’ (ibid.). Vignette researchers must first ‘bracket’ their assumptions, presumptions or hypotheses, i.e., hold back, in order to grasp what is revealed in as unbiased a manner as possible. It is only this exploratory openness that makes it possible for the phenomenologically oriented approach to perceive the unknown in the known. In this context, it is essential to extend perception to include all the senses, since this will determine what we experience, and how we experience it ‘as something’, and offer new insights.

The second irritation lies in the fact that vignette research does not attempt to deliver universally valid insights, but rather explores the particular contained within the general. Since situational experiences are unique in their respective contexts, they cannot be generalized — just as, conversely, individuals cannot be found in statistical data. Hence, vignettes bring out the particularity or singularity of a certain phenomenon or event while at the same time providing access to a more general or universal meaning. Objectivity,

INTRODUCTION 3 reliability and validity are not appropriate criteria for determining their quality. The power of a vignette lies in the conciseness (Prägnanz) with which it describes the multiplicity that characterizes a lifeworld experience, and that generates resonance in the reader.

A third irritation may result from the need to take the subjectivity of the researcher seriously. While researchers deploying conventional approaches enter the research field in as distanced a manner as possible — the objective observer being the outsider who attempts to focus in detail on what is happening without becoming directly involved - vignette researchers seek the greatest possible proximity in order to experience the experience of others in a situation ‘up close’; namely, corporeally (leiblich). In this experience, the researcher is not only a witness to what is revealed, but this experience does something to him or her: it has a transformational effect. The process of creating a vignette allows for it to be based on the phenomena that are co-experientially made manifest.

One further irritation, as you may already have realized, is that the concepts and contexts of phenomenology are unfamiliar and take some getting used to. Phenomenology is characterized by the expressive spirit of the time in which it emerged, which in many cases goes back to Greek and Latin roots. Husserl, the German founding father of phenomenology, built his philosophy of thought on the scientific traditions of Greek philosophical history, and this is reflected in his terminology. In order to make this connection comprehensible, in some cases we have appended the original German expression to the English translation in brackets (this also gives you the opportunity to trace the meanings and etymology of the terms for yourself).

If you are wondering why vignette research takes such an idiosyncratic and methodologically unusual path, the answer is that the academic approach and underlying theory of phenomenology is based on the study of appearances, the study of the phenomenon as a given, in contrast to the logos that prevails in more usual research discourse. This unfamiliar approach is also manifest in the expressive style of the vignette, which is at the heart of vignette research. To this end, we start our research journey by presenting a vignette crafted by Irma Eloff in South Africa on the basis of an online conversation with Evi Agostini and Michael Schratz in Austria, which took place after the completion of the manuscript and in which the three authors discussed their impressions.”

Vignette 1: ‘Editors’ meeting’

It is the day of the solstice. Midsummer in Europe. The longest day and the shortest night. ‘I am curious about the outcome of this, Professor Prinz says, laughing. Behind him on the screen, there are rows of books at different heights and a picture of a green plant against a dark background. Joining him online, Professor Moretti sits wearing earphones. An office cabinet behind her seems to create a frame around her. There is a noticeboard covered with little notes and cards on the side wall of her office. They discuss the ways in which a book on vignette research can be brought to a close. ‘When you write, a lot of things come into your mind... you know what I mean?’ she asks inquisitively. ‘We have been doing it for such a long time, she states matter-of-factly. “You have to be fair, and more precise, he confirms. She smiles. He looks to the left, staring into the distance. ‘We had to move from a German approach to an Anglo-American approach, he proclaims with a concerned look, ‘transposing the material into another culture.’ ‘Yes’, she adds with her eyebrows slightly raised, ‘while not writing in your mother tongue.’ The discussion turns to the most challenging aspects of writing the book. ‘Immersing myself in the philosophical world and then at the same time being very pragmatic, he ventures. She nods, twirling a frond of her hair and playing softly with it between her fingers. ‘Being more scientific, or more advisory . . . ? she reflects. ‘You have to ask, where would a novice start — the practical part, he asserts, looking to the left again. ‘It’s a balancing act, he declares, ‘and it is for the readers, too’.

Vignette writer: Irma Eloff, 23 June 2022, editors’ meeting, Pretoria, South Africa, unpublished.

The balancing act at the end of this vignette refers to the successful dovetailing of an orderly, academically given, pre-articulated concept and a situated, co-experiential experience, weaving them together into a texture of lived experience. You will learn more about this at several points on your journey through this volume. However, at this stage, we do not want to hide the fact that the three of us had to laugh heartily after our co-experiential experience in the creation of this vignette. To that end, we share with you a quote from Umberto Eco’s introduction to academic work (1988: 265): ‘Writing a piece

INTRODUCTION 5 of research means having fun, and doing the work is like slaughtering a pig, as the Italians say: “You don’t throw anything away.”’? We recommend that you take Eco’s advice on board!

You may be irritated by the design of vignettes: as a narrative text type, they are unusual in the research context. When we first started using this novel approach, we had to get used to this too. Vignette research is a new type of knowledge production and necessitates a new relationship between researchers and researched. It disrupts the view that theory and practice can be kept separate; and, when we make use of all the affective spheres of the lifeworld we live in, the commitment to and practice of research are as much personal as they are scholarly. Although vignettes seem loosely written, skills are required to craft them.

Bruno Latour, a well-known researcher on scientific research, teaches us that serious research requires one to be able to change one’s mode of expression and style, if only out of respect for the specifics of the subject matter in question. For him, ‘changing your style is a way of showing respect for the topic in question, and making sure you do not transpose the same issues from one topic to another’ (Latour 1997: 43). It is helpful to keep this quote in mind when you start crafting your first vignettes. As is the case elsewhere, practice makes perfect.

Now that you have faced the aforementioned irritations with regard to your expectations, you will be prepared for your journey into the research world described in this book. Confrontation with the unfamiliar is an integral feature of a phenomenological approach and gives rise to the appropriate attitude. We have done as much as we can to prepare you for the journey. However, be aware when using this book as a travel guide: the map is not the terrain!

Evi Agostini, Michael Schratz and Irma Eloff

CHAPTER ONE What is Vignette Research?

In order to understand the scientific background to vignette research, some clarification is necessary. To this end, the term ‘vignette’ must first be set against the phenomenological background. This chapter introduces you to the philosophical foundation of vignette research, which requires a particular approach. The researcher needs to capture the phenomena that reveal themselves in a form that gives the reader of the data the feeling of being there in the scene. In vignette research, therefore, data are generated by the researcher within the experience itself, rather than being obtained from the experience. The chapter explains this embodied interrelationship, which has transformative power: it does something to and with the researcher. This makes vignette research unique among qualitative approaches. It concludes with a synopsis comparing vignette research with other empirical approaches to field research, highlighting the nuanced differences between them.

Vignettes in and out of research

The word ‘vignette’ has many meanings. If you search for it on Wikipedia, you will find more than ten entries, from contexts ranging from philately to literature to music to sports, illustrating the colourful history of the term and its meaning. The word ‘vignette’ itself goes back to the French word vignette (small vine) and was used to describe decorative leaves in illustrations or photographic prints. In psychological, sociological or philosophical experiments, and in the context of assessment centres and surveys, a vignette refers to a hypothetical initial situation that aims to prompt someone to arrive at personal judgements or (normative) conclusions and beliefs (see, for example, Finch 1987).! Depending on the research context, interview situation, laboratory experiment or test structure (e.g. dilemmas, moral judgements), this enables responses to be assessed or classified — in a mostly predefined and personality-related way.

If you are looking for a more authoritative source for vignettes, Frederick Erickson’s chapter on qualitative methods in research on teaching in the third edition of the American Educational Research Association’s Handbook of Research on Teaching is a good resource. Erickson (1986: 150) refers to the Greek tradition of rhetoric, where orators were recommended to use ‘richly descriptive vignettes in their speeches to persuade the audience that the orator’s general assertions were true in particular cases’.? Building on this historical tradition, he lists analytic narrative vignettes as one of nine main elements of a report on fieldwork research, defining them as follows:

The narrative vignette is a vivid portrayal of the conduct of an event of everyday life, in which the sights and sounds of what was being said and done are described in the natural sequence of their occurrence in real time. The moment-to-moment style of description in a narrative vignette gives the reader a sense of being there in the scene.

ERICKSON 1986: 150

This quote already highlights significant features of relevance to vignette research. As a ‘vivid portrayal’ (ibid.) of an event in daily life, the vignette records what is happening at the moment of the researcher’s presence. The intention is to record not only the course of action, but also multi-sensory perceptions, as underlined by ‘sight and sound’ (ibid.). While an objective, distanced scientific text conveys abstract findings from the empirical work, the vignette condenses what is experienced in the field into a narrative that is as true to the experience as possible, to give the reader ‘a sense of being there in the scene’ (ibid.). An important function of the vignette is to allow the reader to relive the events recorded by the researcher as closely as possible, rather than to reconstruct them. To do so, the researcher emphasizes aspects he or she considers important, while others are relegated to the background or omitted. Therefore, in vignette writing ‘some details are sketched in and others are left out; some features are sharpened and heightened in their portrayal ... and other features are softened, or left to merge with the background’ (ibid.).

Referring to Erickson’s chapter, Charalambos Vrasidas (2001: 99) defines the vignette as a ‘vivid description of the setting that communicates how life in the setting actually is’. He reports how vignettes helped to clarify his thoughts and arguments when reflecting on distance education:

The vignette’s validity should be determined by the degree to which it is rich in description and includes enough interpretive perspective. The vignette and the rich descriptions of concrete details and procedures allow the reader to be coanalyst of the study. The report should have enough evidence that will allow the reader to make her own judgements about the plausibility of my account.... The vignettes allowed me to present a ‘slice of life’ from the setting in a way that illustrates the key characteristics of each situation.

VRASIDAS 2001: 99

For Vrasidas, in order to capture a ‘slice of life’ (ibid.), the researcher positions him or herself on the continuum between observer and participant. Therefore, the closeness to or distance from the participants in the setting influences the kind of data collection the researcher is able to undertake. Vrasidas also points out another significant aspect for vignette research: researchers face the challenge of articulating in words not only the visible but also the audible and the sensory. They strive to clarify and highlight the impossible plurality and excesses of life (Schratz, Schwarz and Westfall-Greiter 2013). According to Bernhard Waldenfels (2002: 138), an important German phenomenological philosopher, there is always a surplus in what we see, hear and feel, the richness of which cannot be fully articulated. Therefore, the researcher can only capture the full extent of the aforementioned ‘slice of life’ (Vrasidas 2001: 99) by attending to all their senses. Moreover, researchers are confronted with the need to express such richness adequately in the research data. Vignettes make this possible by acting as a vessel, mirroring experience as closely as possible.

These early insights into the use of vignettes in both quantitative and qualitative social research highlight important features of vignette research, but stem from the interpretative tradition. In this understanding, the researcher’s intention is to analyse and interpret the acquisition of knowledge in a particular way. Thus, Erickson (1986: 150) sees two tasks for the narrator in writing the vignette: the first is educational (‘the narrator must ground the more abstract analytical concepts of the study in concrete particulars’), and the second is rhetorical:

by providing adequate evidence that the author has made a valid analysis of what the happenings meant from the point of view of the actors in the event. The particular description contained in the analytic narrative vignette both explains to the reader the author’s analytic constructs by instantiation and convinces the reader that such an event could and did happen that way.

ERICKSON 1986: 150

The prefix ‘analytic’ (ibid.) indicates that the vignette author is concerned with presenting an abstract fact in a comprehensible manner, going beyond mere graphs and frequency of occurrence tables. For Erickson it is the task of the researcher ‘to persuade the reader that the event described was typical, that is, that one can generalize from this instance to other analogous instances in the author’s data corpus’ (ibid.).

In this volume in the Research Methods series we take a different, even opposite, approach to the use of vignettes. The approach in this book has its origins in descriptive phenomenology, a philosophy which ‘does not expect to arrive at an understanding of man and the world from any starting point other than that of their “facticity” ... It is a matter of describing, not of explaining or analysing’ (Merleau-Ponty 2009: vii/ix). Consequently, the purpose of the vignette here is not to explain or reconstruct what happened but rather to recreate the experience. This understanding accentuates some of the fundamentals of descriptive phenomenology, and we discuss these in the ‘Accessing the lifeworld from within’ section.

Accessing the lifeworld from within

Vignette research uses phenomenological ways of thinking and perceiving to explore the lived experience of everyday situations. It attempts to make difficult-to-record phenomena in everyday life and work accessible to scientific observation through methods other than empirical research, which tries to abstract generalizable data from the living world. Robin Whittemore, Susan K. Chase and Carol Lynn Mandle (2001: 522) refer to the challenges of building validity standards into qualitative research ‘because of the necessity to incorporate rigour and subjectivity as well as creativity in the scientific process’. Discussing validity in different qualitative approaches, they point out that phenomenological inquiry must attend in particular to explicitness, vividness and thoroughness (Whittemore, Chase and Mandle 2001).

In order to take these validity criteria into account, it is necessary to get as close as possible to the action. To explore the learning experiences in school in the original Innsbruck Vignette Research (IVR) group, it was necessary to obtain experiential data on students in the classroom. Given that the researcher can never completely experience the experience of others, it is clear that no methodology can fully achieve this goal. As a consequence, it was necessary for them to be as close as possible to the experience and to make the experienced conscious. For Max Van Manen (1990: 9), consciousness is the only access human beings have to the world. Or rather, it is by virtue of being conscious that we are already related to the world. Thus, all we can ever know must present itself to consciousness. Whatever falls outside of consciousness, therefore, falls outside the bounds of our possible lived experience. Consciousness is always transitive. To be conscious is to be aware, in some sense, of some aspect of the world. And thus phenomenology is keenly interested in the significant world of the human being.