Jan Marontate
School of Communication
Spring 2010
Simon Fraser University
(Burnaby)
CMNS 801-5: Design and Methodology in Communication Research
Handout 16: Readings on Oral History & Case Study Approaches
Required and recommended readings based on suggestions and annotations by
Indranil Chakraborty and Bojin Traykov
Required Readings
Oral History (to be trimmed in class)
Smith, Graham: The making of oral history
(http://www.history.ac.uk/makinghistory/resources/articles/oral_history_3.html)
This is one of the best overviews on the development and continued relevance of
oral history as a research method. It is more than a primer yet it satisfies all the
questions for the first timers dabbling in oral history. It deals with issues relevant for
beginners as well as for advanced students of oral history. The sections not only give
a history of the discipline but also give in-depth knowledge on issues like
development in oral history theory, technical change and oral history, the importance
of archive, oral history and labour history and even it looks at the relationship
between the oral history and histories of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
histories. At the end it has a detailed bibliography which shows author’s familiarity
with the subject.
Portelli, Alessandro. (1998): What makes oral history different, pp. 63-74, in Perks
Robert and Thomson Alistair (eds). The Oral history Reader, London: Routledge.
This is one of the basic writings to understand the oral history as a non-positivist
method, its difference from the empirically verifiable methods. The first thing the
author tells us that oral history is unique as it is less about the narration of events
rather about their meanings. Secondly the oral history’s validity is not how close it is
to facts rather its departure from it, as narration creates the imagination, symbolism,
and desires of the subject belonging to a particular historical period. The author
reminds us that there are no ‘false’ oral sources rather each source points towards a
particular historical moment which are important to create a reflexive view of
history.
Friedman, Max Paul. (2000): Private Memory, Public Records and Contested
Terrain: Weighing Oral Testimony in the deportation of Germans from Latin
America During World War II, Oral History Review, Winter/Spring 2000, 1-16.
How reliable is oral history as a methodology to unravel the “inner truth” of a
research question? How selective and subjective the personal testimonies are when
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these are checked with other sources like public and private records or what is the
degree of individual biasness when an individual narrates an incident related to the
research question? Is oral history more reliable as a source of data from the archive?
These are some of the questions Max Paul Friedman tries to answer in his essay.
Friedman’s view of the function of the oral history is different from Portelli’s
understanding that is to make history separate from the story. For Portelli, the
strength of oral history lies in combining the history with the story as an interlocked
and intertwined discourse.
Grele, J. Ronald. (1987): On Using Oral History Collections: An Introduction, Journal
of American History, vol. 74, No 2 (Sept., 1987), pp. 570-578.
Grele says that the purpose of oral history is not simply to collect data about the
events of the past; the oral history can also be used to discover the multiple
meanings of the past through the unfolding of consciousness and the mapping of
ideologies of the subjects. The author looks at the oral history method as one of the
ways to understand the subjective aspects of historical experience. This writing
provides an alternative view of the aims of oral history against Friedman’s use of oral
history as a method to reach at the point where one starts knowing the historical
“truth”.
Lummis, Trevor.(1998): Structure and validity in oral evidence, pp. 273-283, in Perks
R and Thomson A (eds). The Oral history Reader, London: Routledge.
The author looks at the important issues the oral history is facing today – as a
methodology how truthful and unbiased is this method when compared to other
ways of doing social research. Lummis feels that the archival evidences which are
supposed to support oral evidences only make things complex rather than help to
unearth the truth. According to him there is no satisfactory method of validating
individual interviews. The more aware of history and politics the speaker is, the more
likely is the danger of his rationalising an account of the past to harmonize with a
present viewpoint. What is the way out? To understand that memory is not just a
“pure recall” rather the memory is “refracted through layer upon layer of subsequent
experience and through the influence of the dominant and/or local and specific
ideology”. One has to understand the specific ideology within a particular historical
context to understand the informant’s version.
Case Studies
Snow, D., & Trom, D. (2002). The Case Study and the Study of Social Movements. In B.
Klandermans, & S. Staggenborg, Social Movement Research (pp. 146-173). Minneapolis:
University of Minesota.
This article discusses the major characteristics of the case study that distinguish it from other methods
and research strategies in the study of social movements. The article aims to elaborate procedural and
analytical principles that are used in case studies. The article describes and illustrates the empirical
and theoretical importance of the case study research in the study of social movements.
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Recommended
Bennett, A., & Elman, C. (2006). Qualitative Research: Recent Developments in Case Study
Methods. Annual Review of Political Science. 9, 455-476.
This article surveys the extensive new literature that about qualitative methods in political science
over the past decade. It discusses the ways in which case-selection criteria in qualitative research differ
from those in statistical research. Next, the article assesses how process tracing and typological
theorizing help address forms of complexity, such as path dependence and interaction effects. The the
method of fuzzy-set analysis is discussed. The article suggests a combination of alternative
methodological approaches in the conducting of research.
Gable, G.G. "Integrating Case Study and Survey Research Methods: An Example in
Information Systems," European Journal of Information Systems, Vol 3, No 2, 1994,
pp.112-126.
This paper presents an analysis of the benefits of integrating case study and survey research methods.
The emphasis is on the qualitative case study method and how it can compliment more quantitative
survey research. Benefits are demonstrated through specific examples from the reference study. The
benefits in combining of qualitative and quantitative methods in research should be seriously taken
into account.
Meyler, D.,, & Milagros, P. (2008). Walking with Latinas in the Struggle for Justice: A Case
Study of El Centro Mujeres de la Esperanza. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 24(2), 97113.
This article focuses on the case study of a faith-based nongovernmental women’s organization serving
women living along the U.S.–Mexico border. The organization unites women from both the US and
Mexico in the struggle for social justice. The authors began their study with archival data and
participant observation, and then analyzed newsletters, pamphlets, flyers, and interviews conducted
with two of the’s leaders. Analyzing these sources helps us understand how faith-based organizations
like CME fit into a pattern of gender and ethnic activism that empower Latinas.
Eisenhardt, K. M. (1989). Building Theories from Case Study Research. Academy of
Management Review. 14 (4), 532-550.
This paper describes the process of inducting theory using case studies—from specifying the research
questions to reaching closure. Some features of the process, such as problem definition and construct
validation, are similar to hypothesis-testing research. Others, such as within-case analysis and
replication logic, are unique to the inductive, case-oriented process. This research approach is
especially appropriate in new topic areas. The resultant theory is often novel, testable, and empirically
valid. Finally, framebreaking insights, the tests of good theory (e.g., parsimony, logical coherence),
and convincing grounding in the evidence are the key criteria for evaluating this type of research.
Odell, J. S. (2001). Case Study Methods in International Political Economy. International
Studies Perspectives. 2 (2), 161-176.
This article argues that case studies are actually a family of research designs: the disciplined
interpretive case study, the hypothesis-generating case study, the least-likely, most likely, and deviant
case studies. The method of difference uses comparison and aims to eliminate rival interpretation by
choosing two or more cases that match in important respects. The authors discuss the pros and cons
of the case study research. Neither family of methods is sufficient.
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The two complement one another and ultimately must be combined.
Perecman, E., & Curran, S. R. (2006). A handbook for social science field research: Essays &
bibliographic sources on research design and methods. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage
Publications.
Mechling, Jay. (1987): Oral Evidence and the History of American Children's Lives,
Journal of American History, Vol. 74, No. 2 (Sep., 1987), pp. 579-586.
This is an important article for writing the history of the ‘other’ – the powerless
groups like the prisoners, mental patients, criminals, minorities, children, subalterns
etc- against the normal, authentic history of the powerless and the marginal by the
powerful groups who think that these people cannot represent themselves, they have
to be represented. Here the author takes the examples of the American children
whose history has always been neglected either at the expense of family history
where children’s voices have been treated as trivial and banal at the alter of grand
historical narratives where the children have no importance – no history. The author
shows how oral historians in association with folklorists, anthropologists,
sociologists and psychologists can preserve oral testimonies of the children and make
use of them in creating children’s own history.
Sloan, Stephen. (2008): Oral History and Hurricane Katrina: Reflections on Shouts
and Silences, The Oral History Review, Vol. 35, No.2 (Summer., 2008), pp. 176-186
This is one of the best examples of how oral history can be used as a methodology to
document the experiences of the immediate aftermath of an event enabling to
capture the individuals woes, plight and suffering, and to hear them begin to
articulate their views about the significance and meaning of their experiences. In the
immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, oral historians in the US
began to consider the role their methodology could serve in documenting the effects
of the storm. This article reflects the issues of historical distance, objectivity,
reflection, and emotional trauma associated with oral history especially when the
interview is taking place soon after such a traumatic event.
Sipe, Dan. (1998): The future of Oral History and Moving Images, pp. 379-388, in
Perks, R. and A. Thomson. (Eds). The Oral History Reader. Routledge,
The article locates the changes happening in the world of history where increasingly
printed words are being replaced by various modes of communication like videos,
films, broadcast television etc. In this changing situation, the author argues that the
moving images have an important role to play as both of them have considerable
synergy. Each can support each other in terms of supportive evidence. One example
the author cites is the moving images with recorded sound as a superior evidence for
the oral history than simply recorded sound bytes or written words based on oral
narration.
Read, Peter. (1998) : Presenting voices in different media: print, radio and CD-ROM,
pp. 414-421, in Perks, R. and A. Thomson. (Eds). The Oral History Reader.
Routledge.
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The author here discusses the problem of presenting the voices in oral history in
different communication formats especially in print. For the author, literal
transcription, radio broadcast and print have its own limitation as all these do not
fully reflect the mood and emotion of the subject while narrating the experiences.
Over all these mediums, CD-ROM (now it is DVD) stands out as the best as it can
capture the “intangible moments” of the real interview besides having search
facility and easy access once put in the digital network. Both Sipe’s and Read’s
articles show how oral memory as method could substantially benefit from the
synergy of text and image.
Anderson, Kathryn and Jack, Dana. (1998): Learning to Listen: Interview
Techniques and Analyses. In Perks, R. and A. Thomson. (Eds). The Oral History
Reader. Routledge, pp. 157-171.
The authors Anderson and Jack look at the oral history method from the feminist
perspective. They feel that to understand women’s experiences of their world the
interview method should be interactive rather than only aiming to gather facts and
information. The interactive method will bring out the muted experiences of a
woman’s life which are buried deep under society’s acceptability norms on how a
woman should be. For example the phrases like “nervous breakdown”, “working
together” have deep significance which differs considerably from the acceptable
meanings in the society. The oral history method should strive to unearth women’s
experiences which seldom come up if the aim is only to keep the meanings of
women’s text within the boundaries of acceptability.
Kirby, R. Kenneth. (2008): Phenomenology and the Problems of Oral History, The
Oral History Review, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Winter-Spring.,2008), pp. 22-28.
This has been kept as the last reading since it is more to do with theoretical question on
truth subjectivity and history and its relationship with oral history rather than how to use
oral history as a method. According to the author, phenomenology as a philosophy played an
important role in the oral history practice although many of its practitioners are not aware of
it. The author suggests “…knowledge and application of phenomenology can clarify or
minimize such potential problems as interviewer bias and informant unreliability and can
refute accusations that oral history is less reliable than history taken from documents.”
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