"Provincializing" Sequence Analysis: Limits of Interpretation as Impetus for Methodological Innovation

Abstract

Reconstructive methodologies such as sequence analysis benefit from calling into question seemingly self-evident interpretations in the process of analysis by placing the material in different contexts of meaning. In this article we look at the limitations we recognized in our own research processes and ask for methodological suggestions for sequence analysis. We situate the discussion of these limits in the context of post/decolonial methodological critique. In doing so we focus on the problem of representation, which we consider with respect to two tendencies: 1. as a critique of the possibilities of neutral knowledge production; 2. as a problematization of the qualitative-sociological production of categorizing constructions. Against this background, we discuss how demands for a provincialization of qualitative methods can be systematically integrated into research processes. We ask what they mean for a sequence-analytic approach, drawing on two of our own qualitative studies: empirical research on local forms of social critique in the context of women's rights NGOs in South India, and on Muslim religiosity in the biographies of theology students. By re-reading the empirical material on the basis of selected excerpts, we show how we can sharpen sequence-analytical procedures in a way that allows us to take into account the post/decolonial demand for provincialization.