Language as friend and foe: Creating terminologies

Vlad Petre Glaveanu

Research output: Contribution to conference without publisher/journalConference abstract for conferenceResearchpeer-review

Abstract

If the limits of our language are the limits of our world, in the famous Wittgensteinian formulation, we can confidently add that they are also the limits of our theories and methodologies. The terms we use to conceptualise psychological and social phenomena often reify and dichotomise realities that are otherwise both integrated and dynamic. How can we use language in research that captures both content and process, both meaning and action, both the conscious and the subconscious, both the individual and the social (and the list can continue...)? Illustrations of the _dangers_ of terminology will be offered from the field of creativity studies. A collective creative exercise will be set in place in order to overcome these barriers in our thinking and, consequently, in our acting in and on the world. Linguistic creativity, will be argued, should be the _best friend_ of researchers engaged in qualitative inquiry.
Original languageEnglish
Publication date2013
Publication statusPublished - 2013
Event9th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana-Champaign, United States
Duration: 15 May 201318 May 2013
Conference number: 9
http://convention2.allacademic.com/one/icqi/icqi13/

Conference

Conference9th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry
Number9
LocationUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityUrbana-Champaign
Period15/05/201318/05/2013
Internet address

Cite this