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Beyond Triangulation: Reconstructing Mandela’s Writing Life through Propulsive Facilitation at the Archive

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Abstract

Multimethod studies generally fall under what are referred to as “confirmatory” or “complementary” approaches. Yet in addition to these two approaches, Hammersley (1996) identifies a third, which he refers to as “facilitation.” In this paper, we build on Hammersley’s observation and argue that methods can be used propulsively, setting the researcher down whole new paths. We first put this observation in conversation with other recent works and pragmatist theorizing. We then use the archive as a point of departure to show the value of such an approach. Specifically, we use our investigation of the archives at the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory in Johannesburg, South Africa as a site to show how we used propulsive facilitation to engage with and make sense of materials relating to Mandela’s memoirs.

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Notes

  1. Exceptions are when not triangulating is in service of a larger empirical (e.g., Pager and Quillian 2005) or theoretical (e.g., Deacon, Bryman, and Fenton 1998) point.

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Acknowledgments

Thank you to the staff at the Nelson Mandela Foundation for their generous time and support during our research.

Funding

Support for this research comes in part from a Social Science and Humanities Research Council Insight Development Grant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, 725 Spadina Ave, Toronto, ON, M5S 2J4, Canada

    Clayton Childress, Abigail Calonga & Erik Schneiderhan

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  1. Clayton Childress
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  2. Abigail Calonga
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  3. Erik Schneiderhan
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Correspondence to Clayton Childress.

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Childress, C., Calonga, A. & Schneiderhan, E. Beyond Triangulation: Reconstructing Mandela’s Writing Life through Propulsive Facilitation at the Archive. Qual Sociol 43, 367–384 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-020-09463-y

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