The Reconstruction of Oral History Methods in Field Politics
In-depth China Survey launched in 2015 marked the introduction of the oral history research method into large-scale field surveys in field politics.The main purpose of the oral history research is to salvage and preserve history materials.However,as a data collection method,oral history has been questioned in terms of clarifying"objective facts".This paper argues that the focus of oral history research should be shifted from oral data collection to the exploration of meaning,namely,to inquire the"mentality"of individuals,groups,and society based on oral evidence.It would,by doing so,facilitate to dispel"reliability"doubts of oral history data,and will help to expand the boundaries of field politics and field research method.Oral history research should be done through"hearts with hearts"empathic approach,that is,to use the researcher's"heart"to touch and communicate with the"mentality"of the research object,capturing meanings subtle and deeply buried in society.This approach might be viewed as the first step towards autonomous oral research,even towards research method of filed research.Autonomous field research method is an important part of autonomous knowledge system in filed politics.Consciously constructing autonomous method of field research in Chinese context might help to provide solid research foundation for the construction of the autonomous knowledge system in politics.
field politicsfield research methodoral historymeaning probingautonomous knowledge system
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
