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4.0 Introduction
CHAPTER
4
DOING SOCIA(B)L(E) SCIENCE
In the previous three chapters I have drawn on a substantial and eclectic
body of literature to address face and facework (Chapter 1), German-English
differences in communicative style (Chapter 2), and posited a framework for
addressing facework as alignment in sociable episodes (Chapter 3). In this
chapter, before moving on to the analytical chapters, I want to briefly outline my
general methodology for the collection and initial management and analysis of
conversational data.
After formally out setting the research questions (4.1), 1 shall provide a
brief description of the data sites from which my data are drawn. This will
include details of settings and participants. I shall outline my methodology for
data collection, focusing on the nature of the data employed, the recording
remit, and technical aspects of data collection, as well as additional methods
employed to enhance the depth of the analysis (4.2). Following this I shall
provide an overview of the initial organisation and analysis of the conversational
data (4.3). Issues concerning my role, relationship to participants, and related
ethical issues will then be discussed (4.4). Finally, I will provide a conclusion
(4.5).
In effect, this chapter relates to the pre-analytical phase of this study, that
is, the fieldwork phase. In that sense it shall focus on the procedures employed
to gather data from sociable gatherings, as well as focusing on the actual
experiences and contingencies of working in such milieu. The title of the chapter
'doing social(b)l(e) science has been deliberately contrived to capture the full
set of contingencies of this particular type of data collection ethnographic work.
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