Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities

Fish, Stanley

doi:10.2307/1772220

Cited by 430 publications

(414 citation statements)

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“…In understanding how it is that letters function socially to specify relationships between RECs and applicants, we draw upon the notion of "interpretive communities" as developed by Fish (1980). We suggest that those involved in the process know how to "read" the letters so that they will be understood in particular ways.…”

Section: Function 3: Specifying Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Written work: The social functions of Research Ethics Committee letters

Dixon‐Woods

Angell

Ashcroft

et al. 2007

Social Science & Medicine

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Research Ethics Committees (RECs) are increasingly institutionalised as a feature of research practice, but have remained strangely neglected by social scientists. In this paper we argue that analysis of letters from RECs to researchers offers important insights into how RECs operate. We report a content analysis and an ethnographic content analysis of 141 letters to researchers, together with an analysis of the organisational and institutional arrangements for RECs in the UK. We show that REC letters perform three important social functions. First, they define what is deemed by a REC to be ethical practice for any particular application, and confer authoritativeness on that definition. They do this actively, through comments on particular aspects of proposals, and passively, through silences about other aspects. Second, they provide an account of the work of the REC, and function as a form of institutional display. Third, they specify the nature of the relationship between the REC and the applicant, casting the applicant in a supplicant role and requiring forms of docility. Writing and reading REC letters requires highly specific competences, and engage both parties in a Bourdieusian "game" that discourages challenges from researchers. The authority of RECs' decisions derives not from their appeal to the moral superiority of any ethical position, but through their place in the organisational structure and the social positioning of the parties to the process thus implied. Letters are the critical point at which RECs act on researchers and their projects.

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Section: Function 3: Specifying Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Written work: The social functions of Research Ethics Committee letters

Dixon‐Woods

Angell

Ashcroft

et al. 2007

Social Science & Medicine

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…One of the key terms in this article is interpretive community (Fish, 1980), "a collectivity of people who share strategies for interpreting, using, and engaging in communication about a media text or technology. The strategies are devised with respect to norms and standards that evolve among the community members through innovation and the influence of argument" (Lindlof, 2002, p. 64).…”

Section: Interpretative Communities and Enclave Culturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Medium Is the Danger: Discourse about Television among Amish and Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Women

Shahar

2017

Journal of Media and Religion

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“…8, No. 3;2015 published anonymously in 1690, and for the next two hundred and sixty-six years scholars basically read it as a justification for the Glorious Revolution of 1688. In 1956, Peter Laslett went back through some of Locke's estate and discovered compelling evidence that the Second Treatise was written in the winter of 1679-80, eight or nine years before conventionally understood.…”

Section: Authorshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…8, No. 3;2015 set of understandings and dispositions toward reading (Ibid,26). What Strauss taught us about political texts is that under conditions of persecution, texts might have been written to speak at multiple levels to different audiences, and that careful reading could produce an accurate interpretation that was not immediately apparent.…”

Section: The Legal Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Authority and Compulsion in Legal-Historical Method

Goltz

2015

JPL

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Case law is often used as evidence of a political action, similar to a pamphlet or speech. Yet, legal decisions are different from other sources in that when they function as precedent they have authority not only in the case at hand, but also in similar future cases. Recovering and using case law in the process of doing qualitative research is then inherently normative in the sense that researchers' actions may influence the outcome of future legal cases. This article argues that case law in the common law world is a unique type of source presenting normative entanglements and challenges not found in other historical documents, and that these normative issues have been overlooked because the concept of authority has received little attention in qualitative methodology. Consideration of the authority of our source material helps us to understand not only the context of the original source, but also to anticipate and appreciate the future uses to which others may put our work.

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Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities

Cited by 430 publications

References 0 publications

Written work: The social functions of Research Ethics Committee letters

Written work: The social functions of Research Ethics Committee letters

The Medium Is the Danger: Discourse about Television among Amish and Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Women

Authority and Compulsion in Legal-Historical Method

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