Sense of Differentness in the Construction of Knowledge

This article contributes to the body of knowledge on qualitative interviewing in as much as it highlights the inherent connection between a sense of differentness among interview partners and processes of knowledge construction, which is the overarching goal of qualitative research. The authors argue that a sense of differentness serves as the starting point for the production of knowledge through exploration and reflection, conflict, negotiation, and argumentation. For heuristic purposes, the authors organize the analysis around four conceptual alternatives regarding agreement or disagreement with respect to the moral stances of interview partners. The authors then examine each of the alternatives in terms of its implications for the knowledge construction process and discuss them with regard to ontological, epistemological, and moral levels of analysis.