Open AccessRadical Insights: Towards a Critical Hermeneutic
Author(s) -
MENDONCA KARL
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
ethnographic praxis in industry conference proceedings
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1559-8918
pISSN - 1559-890X
DOI - 10.1111/1559-8918.2015.01051
Subject(s) - hermeneutics , epistemology , reflexivity , sociology , interpretation (philosophy) , context (archaeology) , persona , meaning (existential) , set (abstract data type) , ethnography , facticity , social science , computer science , philosophy , paleontology , biology , programming language , human–computer interaction , anthropology
In this paper, I will use an ethnographic research project to develop a set of foundational personas to work through the process of formulating insights that challenged the core epistemological assumptions of our stakeholders. Drawing on a rich body of discourse within postcolonial theory, I will highlight the concept of critical hermeneutics that emphasizes thinking about the conditions under which knowledge is produced over the “facticity” of the research artifacts, shifting the focus from “how objective is the information” to “what assumptions are driving research.” Put simply, critical hermeneutics can be seen as a method that uses reflexivity to explain how meaning is not absolute or empirical, but rather emerges from active interpretation that is informed by context. With this theoretical framework in mind, I will describe the methods used to include our stakeholders in the process of engaging with research data and ultimately derive the epistemological cores of the new persona set. The final section of the paper will critically evaluate the project in terms its overall impact and open up a broader discussion about the relationship of critical hermeneutics to ethnographic research.