Embodying of the self during interviews

Author(s)

Grit Höppner

Abstract

This article investigates from an agential realist perspective the way the embodying of the self is constituted during interviews. Since the aim is to analyze how, in Karen Barad’s words, ‘matter comes to matter,’ the approach presented here takes into account not only how discursive but also how material practices produce ‘embodying processes’ that differ according to situational references. The approach considers the influence of the agency of human and non-human bodies in terms of non-verbal body language. Using the case of Viennese elderly people, this article presents three sets of material-discursive practices that have formed and transformed the way in which they embody their selves during the interviews: through their reference to absent non- human materiality, to non-human materiality present in the interview, and to human materiality present in the interview the elderly people non-verbally materialized their ideas on gender, age, health, and illness. In analyzing embodying processes, the article shows the kind of contribution that an agential realist account can make to sociological interview research. It particularly highlights the need to rethink both the constitution of the self and the popular procedure of focusing almost exclusively on discursive practices and human bodies in empirical analyses.

Organisation(s)

Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Journal

Current Sociology

No. of pages

19

ISSN

0011-3921

Publication date

2015

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

504007 Empirical social research, 504014 Gender studies, 509005 Gerontology

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Gender Studies

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/355a60c7-6558-48d7-964b-c4d7a50d27b3