ABSTRACT
There are many research approaches that can be put to good use in researching contexts empirically while applying a critical lens. Unfortunately, our “research methods seem to have become a context in itself, irrespective of whether those methods are the best fit with our research questions”, and irrespective of whether they are context-sensitive (Brännback & Carsrud, 2016, p. 21). In contrast, doing context critically implies a different way of researchers seeing and understanding the world and therefore often requires being bold and entrepreneurial when choosing how to go about one’s work. Other fields have had long, often richly insightful debates as to which research approaches and methods can best drive contextualization (see our review in Baker & Welter, 2018). Communication and media research, socio-linguistics, information science and human-computer interaction studies have turned to ethnomethodology, conversation analysis and other interpretative and narrative methods (e.g., Bazzanella, 2002; Labov, 1970; McHoul, 2008), which encourage researchers to simultaneously look at talk, action and interaction as well as embodiment and artifacts within and across contexts, while being respectfully observant about how individuals and groups construct the contexts in which they operate. An important theme running through studies across many disciplines points to the active construction of contexts through language and through non-verbal interactions. For example, de Kok (2008) shows how a cultural context is not only “out there”, but also continuously constructed by those who are part of the culture, even, tellingly, during the moments in which people react to her as a researcher who is an outsider to the country and its culture. Other studies use approaches that point to the processes that structure contexts (Broth, 2008; Broth & Mondada, 2013; McHoul, Rapley, & Antaki, 2008), emphasizing the role and importance of non-verbal language, interactions, movements and artifacts (Dourish, 2004; Dupret & Ferrié, 2008). Some suggest how doing context supports a mandate to not only analyze but also visualize context (Bar, 2004). Inspired by such approaches, in this chapter, we want to focus on some research approaches that promote 130the study of how contexts are constructed both verbally and visually and how researchers can do context in exploring such constructions.
