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Data
Recycling
in the
Hermeneutic
Cycle
Approach
Dr. Sharon L. Bender
June, 2006
Data Recycling Approach
When I
produced
my
dissertation
in 2000,
I
discovered an
interpretive
analysis
approach
using
recycling
of the
data,
which
many refer to
as the "data
recycling"
approach.
Recycling
of data
occurs
in an
interpretive
investigation.
Once
data is
captured,
it is
revisited
over and
over in
such
inquiries
as the
hermeneutic
cycle
approach.
The
revolving
circle/symbol
solicits
three
components
for
exploration
that can
be
examined
over and
over
again,
and in
any
order.
In my
2000
dissertation,
I
provided
that the
hermeneutic
cycle
encourages
interpretations
of
meaning
through
new
encounters
with the
text.
The
range of
interpretations
is
progressively
narrowed
as
knowledge
advances
through
the data
recycling
process.
Application
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In the
interpretational
sense, data recycling provides a means to analyze data from multiple perspectives and levels to reach perhaps a different perspective each time
the data
is
revisited.
Data
Recycling
approach
is
represented
by the
circle
and/or a
replicated
version
of the
recycle
symbol. |
The hermeneutic
cycle
approach
employed
in my
study is
the
process
by which
the
researcher
returns
to the
textual
data,
possibly
deriving
a new
interpretation
each
time the
data is
revisited.
My study
utilized
the
hermeneutic
cycle
approach
to
understand
the
literature
and the
life
experiences
of
American
women
entrepreneurs.
Hermeneutics
fully
acknowledges
the
prejudices
and
foreknowledge
of the
investigator
in the
interpretive
analysis
process
as it is
the
science
and
methodology
of
interpretation.
My study
relied
heavily
on
interpretation
in the
data
collection
and
analysis
process
as well
as in
the
development
of the
resulting
characteristics
model,
portraying
the
population
under
study.
The
following
passage
is
reprinted
from my
2000
dissertation:
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Reason and Rown (1981) note that hermeneutics is an example of an everyday process through which sense of the world is made. Hermeneutics is almost as old as philosophy itself. This was serious business in the Middle Ages, when differing interpretations of scripture could produce heresies, schisms, persecutions, wars, etc. Some issues that emerged were the questions of who had the authority to interpret scriptures and of whether interpretation was something that anybody could do or if it required particular abilities or inspiration. Since philosophers or reformers with new ideas frequently did not want to be perceived as having new ideas, but merely as reviving original, authoritative teachings, they needed to force their teachings into the form of interpretations of their texts. Its present form can be traced back to Wilhelm Dilthey and Martin Heidegger.
The chief concern that leads one to hermeneutics is the need to have an enriched understanding of the context of a piece of data. Its purpose according to Palmer (1969) is to provide contextual awareness and perspective. It may serve as a step toward a more formal investigation along more objective lines, spiraling in on a topic with newly discovered meanings to aid in formulating the analytic questions. So it might be used to interpret the events in the life of an organization or individual in order to contribute to a theory or social transformation.
Hermeneutic research interprets data essentially embedded in its context. Thus, one may use a hermeneutic approach to understand an historical event, make sense of an artifact, or extract from a mass of data a question that merits formal research (results in research question or takeaway). Although hermeneutic work is sometimes done in a context where the subjects cannot validate the interpretations, it is in principle oriented toward understanding the meaning intended by subjects, even when the researcher lacks direct interpersonal contact with them. While in accordance with the canons (exemplary models) of the work, the researcher must follow two contradictory paths: maintaining the autonomy of the subject of inquiry, and achieving the greatest possible familiarity with it. In extreme opposition to the canon of natural science, the researcher must show the meaning of the phenomena in a way that is intelligible to both the researcher and to the subject's own sociocultural frame of reference (Bernstein, 1983).
The raw data of a hermeneutic inquiry is anything that is recognizable in a context. As in this study, hermeneutic inquiry may be based on texts, historical records, or any form of recorded data; anything the researcher can relate to the matter under study. A further unique characteristic of hermeneutic inquiry is its returning again and again to the object of inquiry, each time with an increased understanding and a more complete interpretive account. An initial understanding becomes refined and corrected by the work of interpretation; fresh questions are raised that can be answered only by returning to the events studied and revising the interpretation (Packer, 1985).
No text completely determines its own interpretation. Meaning is not derived from a text but brought to it, and that initial meaning will in great measure determine the interpretation of the text, regardless of what the text might be thought to obviously mean to others. Since different interpretations then arise, these can often only be settled in a practical sense by some exercise of social pressure. Only the meaning attributed by the reader is significant, or possible. In a larger epistemological framework, this also means that the world (the ultimate text) has no meaning or nature in its own right. Reality is supplied by the interpretation of the one experiencing it. This eliminates, in effect, the independent existence of the world, as it eliminated the independence existence of the author of a text and, in every practical sense, the text itself. These results are characteristic of the kind of relativistic and nihilistic doctrine of deconstruction advocated by Jacques Derrida (1989).
The hermeneutic cycle, by which interpretations of meaning are reinterpreted through new encounters with the text, is in fact constrained by reality, so that the range of interpretations is progressively narrowed as knowledge advances. The hermeneutic cycle is the process by which the researcher returns to a text, or to the world, and derives a new interpretation, perhaps a new interpretation every time, or a new one for every interpreter. It is clear that this happens all the time. A book, a movie, or other written discourse could be understood a little differently each time it is read or seen (Bernstein, 1983).
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The
Journey
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Recycling of the data was a process that I came upon in my BA course on Computers and Society taken at TESC in 1994.
Item #3 in my course notes as depicted in
Figure 1 includes “data recycling” as one of
the items listed under Control of MIS
Functions. |
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Figure 1. Course Notes (1) |
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In
my course notes depicted in Figure 2 from
the same course taken in 1994, I listed
“recycle data” on the third line under how
computers perform. It states, "update data
and recycle data." |
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Figure 2. Course Notes (2) |
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I also heard about “data recycling” while working in
Strategic Planning, Knoll Pharmaceuticals, BASF in
1996. Strategic planning is a management tool and a data cycling process.
It deals with defining vision, mission, and values
as well as determining
tasks, goals,
and objectives; and roles, responsibilities, and
timelines that are based on "past" and "present"
performance levels and not so much the "potential."
Strategic planning involves anticipating the future
environment, but the decisions are made in the
present. As with any management tool, it is used to
assist the organization to perform and to ensure
that its "individual" members are working toward
unified objectives and to assess its
"organizational" direction in response to "social"
issues in a changing environment. Strategic planning deals heavily with such tools as SWOT and
determining gaps in performance for planning
purposes.
Strategic plans are a continuous
development in strategic planning. The process
affects implementation of annual planning and
budgeting, leading to updating and “recycling” the
strategic plan(s). My job entailed working and
reworking (recycling) these "strat" plans and their
content. I referred to the following
material to assist me in understanding my job
duties while working in Strategic Planning:
Goodstein, L. D., Nolan, T. M., & Pfeiffer, J. W.
(1992). Applied strategic planning: An introduction.
San Diego: Pfeiffer & Company.
Here is the content page. Item 15 covers recycling
considerations:
I also
took the
course
and
taught
the
course
called,
"Strategic
Management"
at ISIM
University.
Sources
Bender,
S. L.
(2000).
Seven
Characteristics
of the
American
Woman
Entrepreneur:
A
Hermeneutic
Approach
to
Developing
a
Universal
Characteristics
Model. [UMI
AAT998805].
An
additional
source
for
information
on the
Data
Recycling
approach
may be
found
through:
Ownby,
A. R.
(2001).
Cycling
and
recycling:
The
effects
of group
context
and
member
involvement
on
social
capital.
Dissertation,
Rice
University.
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