Voice in Qualitative Inquiry

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.

Introduction: The Limit of Voice Part 1: Straining Notions of Voice 1. Against Empathy, Voice, and Authenticity 2. Indigenous Voice, Community, and Epistemic Violence: The Ethnographer's 'Interests' and What 'Interests' the Ethnographer 3. An Impossibly Full Voice 4. Voicing Objections 5. "Soft ears" and Hard Topics: Race, Disciplinarity, and Voice in Higher Education 6. Broken Voices, Dirty Words: On the Productive Insufficiency of Voice Part 2: Transgressive Voices: Productive Practices 7. The Problem of Speaking for Others 8. Forays Into the Mist: Violences, Voices, Vignettes 9. 'What Am I Doing When I Speak Of This Present?' Voice, Power, and Desire In Truth-Telling 10. Researching and Representing Teacher Voice(s): A Reader Response Approach 11. Life in Kings Cross: A Play of Voices Afterword: Decentering Voice in Qualitative Inquiry