Paradigms and Metatheoretical Traditions

Over a decade after Denzin and Lincoln (2000) introduced a list of key paradigms in qualitative research (i.e., interpretivism, hermeneutics, and social constructionism), the latest edition of Denzin and Lincoln’s handbook on qualitative research (2011) expanded these classic areas by adding “paradigms and perspectives in contention,” displaying tensions found in critical ethnography and

race theory scholarships, cultural studies, and critical humanism and queer theory.

Paradigms overlap with and differ from phenomenological, sociocultural (e.g., ethnomethodological, symbolic interactionist, social constructionist, ethnographic, structurational, actor network theoretical inquiry), and critical (e.g., feminist, postcolonialist, critical race, and cultural studies) traditions and theories espoused by Lindlof and Taylor (2010). In the following sections, we rely on the work of Denzin and Lincoln (2000, 2011), Craig (1999), and Lindlof and Taylor (2010) for our overviews. Table 3.1 summarizes all the major theoretical paradigms adopted in qualitative research on

Table 3.1 Summary of Selected Qualitative Research on Communication and Conflict

Contexts

Paradigm	Overview	Methods Used	Considered	Examples
Phenomenological	Conflict is rooted	Phenomenology	Interpersonal,	Krider and Ross
	in conflict of		organizational	(1997) and
	meaning. This			Oduro-Frimpong
	paradigm focuses on individuals’			(2007)
	unique experience, emotions, and interpretations of conflict.
Sociocultural/	Conflict is	Ethnography,	Interpersonal,	Aakhus and
social	constructed by	narrative,	organizational,	Rumsey (2010),
construction	participants	grounded	community,	Barak (2007),
	through group,	theory, case	public	Brummans et al.
	community,	study, and	relations,	(2008), Coleman,
	and cultural	mixed methods	interethnic/	Hacking, Stover,
	interactions.		intercultural,	Fisher-Yoshida,
	Norms of conflict		international	and Nowak
	(macrolevel)		and	(2008), Daiute
	are worked		geopolitical,	and Turniski,
	out through		and online	(2005), D. Ellis
	communication			(2012), Goodwin
	(microlevel).			(2008), Moriizumi
	Conflict occurs			(2011), Papa,
	when there is a			Mapendere, and
	lack of shared			Dillon (2010), and
	rules, rituals,			Smith-Sanders and
	or expectations among members.			Harter (2007)

(Continued)

Table 3.1 (Continued)

bgcolor=white>relations

Paradigm	Overview	Methods Used	Contexts Considered	Examples
Critical/cultural	Conflict is	Ethnography,	Interpersonal,	Buzzanell and Liu
studies	embedded in a	narrative,	organizational,	(2007), Cloud
	society’s power	grounded	community,	(2005), D’Enbeau
	structures, be	theory, case	and	and Buzzanell
	it economic,	study, and	interethnic/	(2011), Eckman
	social, cultural, or ideological. Conflict is a locale for investigating how power is constituted and normalized. Praxis and social change start with awareness of and resistance to power imbalance.	mixed methods	intercultural conflict	and Lindlof (2003), Goldberg (2009), Jameson (2003), Lambert and Dollahite (2006), Palmeri (2009), Plowman (2008), Roscigno and Hodson (2004), and Wieland (2010)
Poststructuralist/	Conflict is	Narrative,	Interpersonal,	Buzzanell and Liu
postmodernist	nonlinear,	grounded	organizational,	(2005), Faulkner
	emergent, unstable,	theory, and case	and public	and Hecht (2011),
	and unpredictable. Multiple emergent realities, rooted in historical and cultural contexts, can give rise to ambiguities, ironies, and identity considerations in and about conflict.	study	Ney, Blank, and Blank (2007), Watts (2009), and Weaver (2010)

NOTE: Qualitative conflict studies featured in this table are referenced in alphabetic order.

conflict communication as well as the methods, specific communicative contexts, and key publications for each paradigm.

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Source: Oetzel John, Ting-Toomey Stella. The SAGE Handbook of Conflict Communication: Integrating Theory, Research and Practice. SAGE Publications,2013. — 912 p.. 2013

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