New methodologies – new interculturalities? The visionary discourse of post-qualitative research on the intercultural

ABSTRACT

Recently, post-qualitative research methods are on the rise in intercultural research, not least to avoid epistemic violence. This paradigm builds on an open epistemology that contrasts with approaches that a priori have a given concept in mind like culture. This article analyses the discourse of intercultural communication in journal articles from the fields of autoethnography, participatory research and arts-based research on the intercultural to find out whether, or how, these texts resolve this epistemic and methodological dilemma. As a result, these new methods often serve authors to experiment with new and visionary forms of the intercultural and its ethical implications.

Recentemente, os métodos de pesquisa pós-qualitativa estão a aumentar na área da pesquisa intercultural, também para evitar a violência epistémica. Este paradigma baseia-se numa epistemologia aberta que contrasta com abordagens que, a priori, possuem um determinado conceito como a cultura. Este artigo analisa o discurso da comunicação intercultural em artigos de revistas dos áreas da autoetnografia, investigação participativa e pesquisa baseada nas artes sobre a interculturalidade, para descobrir se, ou como, estes textos resolvem este dilema epistémico e metodológico. Como resultado, estes novos métodos servem a muitos autores para experimentar novas e visionárias formas de interculturalidade e as suas implicações éticas.

KEYWORDS:

• Post-qualitative research
• autoethnography
• arts-based research
• participatory research
• discourse of intercultural communication
• visionary

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dominic Busch

Dominic Busch is a professor of intercultural communication and conflict research at Universität der Bundeswehr München, faculty of human sciences. In 2004, he completed his doctorate on intercultural mediation at European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder). There, he was a junior professor for intercultural communication from 2006 to 2011. In his research, Dominic takes a discourse-analytical view on the contents of academic discourses. His research focuses on how societies project ethical aspirations into the way they deal with interculturality (https://doi.org/g625) and how notions of culture are used in mediation research to create different understandings of intercultural mediation (https://doi.org/hgsk). Dominic is the editor of the Routledge Handbook of Intercultural Mediation (https://doi.org/jc7g).

Emilian Franco

Emilian Franco is a research associate at the professorship for intercultural communication and conflict research at Universität der Bundeswehr München, faculty of human sciences. Emilian holds a BA in drama and media studies as well as political sciences from Erlangen-Nürnberg University, and he has an MA in intercultural communication from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, where he is currently a PhD student. Emilian is now doing international ethnographic fieldwork in software development facilities, which places his research in the field of science and technology studies (STS).