PLAYING THE POWER GAME FOR QUALITATIVE RESEARCHERS - THE POSSIBILITY OF A POSTMODERN APPROACH

The later work of Wittgenstein (1953) takes language and meaning as ar ising in use. A local 'grammar' is created. Ethical/research awarding committees have developed, and clashing, meanings about what constitut es 'good' research. The fixed rule language game of the committee is i mplicitly powerful because it is part of well-rehearsed societal narra tives which equate science and knowledge. This creates a force on the qualitative researcher to conform to the authoritative grammar which i t is difficult to counter. In these circumstances, qualitative researc hers may choose to inhabit two, parallel research universes by 'storyi ng' their research proposal according to the audience. But a question arises as to whether ethical approval has been gained when a 'Trojan h orse' approach is used. Moving between worlds involves the researcher living with a dual identity. The postmodernist movement away from stru cture, form and singular truth is seen as setting a context for a new archaeology of knowledge which transcends good/bad dichotomies in rela tion to research. The qualitative researcher is encouraged to enter in to dialogical communication with committees with the hope that a share d grammar may emerge.