Voice in Qualitative Inquiry

Book excerpt: Voice in Qualitative Inquiry is a critical response to conventional, interpretive, and critical conceptions of voice in qualitative inquiry. A select group of contributors focus collectively on the question, "What does it mean to work the limits of voice?" from theoretical, methodological, and interpretative positions, and the result is an innovative challenge to traditional notions of voice. The thought-provoking book will shift qualitative inquiry away from uproblematically engaging in practices and interpretations that limit what "counts" as voice and therefore data. The loss and betrayal of comfort and authority when qualitative researchers work the limits of voice will lead to new disruptions and irruptions in making meaning from data and, in turn, will add inventive and critical dialogue to the conversation about voice in qualitative inquiry. Toward this end, the book will specifically address the following objectives: To promote an examination of how voice functions to communicate in qualitative research To expose the excesses and instabilities of voice in qualitative research To present theoretical, methodological, and interpretative implications that result in a problematizing of voice To provide working examples of how qualitative methodologists are engaging the multiple layers of voice and meaning To deconstruct the epistemological limits of voice that circumscribe our view of the world and the ways in which we make meaning as researchers This compelling collection will challenge those who conduct qualitative inquiry to think differently about how they collect, analyze, and represent meaning using the voices of others, as well as their own.