Abstract:
This paper describes some of the dilemmas of collectivity, voice and power experienced by researchers in their analysis of the narratives and discussions that form the data of memory-work. Each memory-work project begins with a dynamic process in which individuals become a group generating unique and unexpected outcomes. Memories are stirred, experiences shared, insights gained and perceptions changed, long after the last meeting has been held. But when the project develops into a product for publication, some of these vital signs are lost. Three issues pertaining to collectivity and the researcher’s authority are taken up in this paper: the integrity of the individual production of the research outcomes from a collective process; an ambivalence about the nature of the researcher's authority in the collective production of data, and the robustness of the analytical process.