THE VALUE OF DATA IN ETHNOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH

The primary objective of this analysis refers to the question of the value of information, which is an important issue in ethnographic research. The relevance of the study is articulated if one considers that the analysis of ethnographic data from a different cultural context touches the sensitive issue of the creation of truth and the transfer of (scientific) information, facts, and knowledge. This understanding leads to the question who has done the viewing of the facts presented, and to the necessity of an adequate and creative methodological approach, which allows a sensitization, respectfulness, and openness by approaching an ‘other' culture and its people. This article is built around theoretical and conceptual frameworks in the field of social science – particularly in the disciplines of adult education, globalization, and development studies as well as colonial studies and postcolonial theory. The research design includes an interdisciplinary literature analysis as well as micro-ethnographic investigations. One focus of this research is that in a time of globalization and postmodernity the model of the ‘only truth' increasingly loses its importance and final solutions and clarifications do not provide reliance. As a consequence, one has to acknowledge the plurality in knowledge-production and -transfer.