ABSTRACT
This chapter makes an explicit effort to consider how meaning is produced within a political economy methodology. It reflects on how corroboration serves as an organising concept for constructing critical-ethical knowledge claims. The chapter explains how the contributors mobilise three kinds of evidence in their research practices: human subjects, texts and institutions. Many vignettes draw evidence from 'human subjects' – that is, from actual people who provide information about ideas, relationships, histories, communities, networks and norms. No less than evidence gathered from human subjects, evidence gathered from texts benefits from reflexivity. The final kind of evidence relates to institutions, which can be understood as regularised patterns of human interaction that are informed by ideas, norms and cultural practices. Reflexivity embeds the evidence within the research practice in order to foreground the craft of making professional judgements and decisions; therefore, credibility becomes a key factor in making knowledge claims.
