Abstract
In the previous chapters, I discussed the methodological premises of a transrational peace research with particular emphasis on the self. I have conceptualized different modes of knowing; I have explored the potential of this type of research; and I have highlighted some of the productive challenges that could be encountered along the way. As a next step, I want to turn to the research process itself and propose a systematization. This is intended as an orientation for peace researchers. It is not intended as a prescription of how a research process (transrational or otherwise) should unfold, nor is it a factual statement claiming that research always unfolds in this manner. This is not my intention. The map is not the territory. Any map hides at least as much as it reveals. Still, a map can provide pointers, can give orientation and be useful on the journey.
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Notes
- 1.
For related approaches, see Janesick (1998) or Moustakas (1990). Janesick also uses dance as a metaphor for describing the process of qualitative research, while Moustakas divides the process into the six phases of initial engagement, immersion, incubation, illumination, explication and creative synthesis.
- 2.
In her work on reflexive research, Kim Etherington (2004) emphasizes the importance of the relational aspects of supervision for MA and PhD students when researching their theses or dissertations. Often overlooked, studies show the quality of the relation to be important for the completion rates particularly of PhD students within the Social Sciences (Etherington 2004, 165). Particularly for students using the self as resource, this requires a supervisor who is willing and able to also accompany the personal processes involved in the research. Such supervision, hence, is also part of academic facilitation as described in the second part of this text.
- 3.
For example, healing experiences, moments of bliss, great insight or revelation, experiences of peace.
- 4.
For example, experiences of desolation, hurt, trauma or violence.
- 5.
The more serene and calm experiences that do not provide such an emotional high or low as peak or nadir experiences and, therefore, always have a cognitive or noetic quality according to Maslow (1994, xiv).
- 6.
Saturation does not mean completion or exhaustion. In principle, it is always possible to go deeper still, do yet another interview, add yet another source and hence deepen or broaden one’s own understanding. For most topics, just the literature that is already available spans libraries. Saturation therefore does not mean exhaustive depth, but sufficient depth. It can be defined as the moment when a topic has been researched thoroughly, so that “researching further yields only repeated patterning and themes” (Marshall 2016, 6).
- 7.
The following overview renders different writing styles. Of course, a more functional classification along the lines of descriptive, interpretive, structural, categorical, predictive, explanatory, etc. would also be possible (cf. Wertz et al. 2011, 93).
- 8.
This essay by Laurel Richardson and Elizabeth Adams St. Pierre has recently been republished in the fifth edition of The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research (Denzin and Lincoln 2018). The four criteria suggested in the original essay remain unchanged.
- 9.
As suggested by Laurel Richardson, the four criteria are: substantive contribution, aesthetic merit, reflexivity and impact. To this, I have added plausibility and congruence as a separate fifth criterion, which Richardson includes under substantive contribution.
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Koppensteiner, N. (2020). The Rhythms of Research. In: Transrational Peace Research and Elicitive Facilitation . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46067-9_4
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