Whose Uncertainties? Dealing with Multiple Meanings in a Transnational Biography

Titelangaben

Philipps, Joschka:
Whose Uncertainties? Dealing with Multiple Meanings in a Transnational Biography.
In: Historical Social Research. Bd. 48 (2023) Heft 4 . - S. 199-228.
ISSN 0172-6404
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.48.2023.45

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Abstract

»Wessen Ungewissheiten? Der Umgang mit multiplen Bedeutungen
in einer transnationalen Biografie«. Uncertainty permeates and structures so-
cial life, biographies, and research. In its ubiquity, it may well be the “the most
ordinary thing in the world” (Wohlrab-Sahr 1992, 10), and has been consid-
ered a key concern of sociology (Boltanski 2011, 55). This article reflects on
how uncertainty looms large both in the social world and throughout the so-
cial scientific research process. The focus is on the biography of N., a woman
who grew up in Conakry in the Republic of Guinea and currently lives in
France, and how her lived experiences are being turned into an academic
text. N.’s narrations of her life feature uncertainty in different forms, ranging
from moments of existential crisis to a quotidian contingency produced by
the multiplicity of norms, languages, ideologies, and systems of meaning of
her transnational life-worlds. The article reflects on the relationship between
the researcher and N., showing how our work on her biography implies mul-
tiple translations and transformations of meaning, as well as miscomprehen-
sion and doubts. On a theoretical level, uncertainties are also implicit in situ-
ating an academic text in relation to others, especially in inter- and
transdisciplinary contexts with contradictory concerns and ideals of scholar-
ship. The article is embedded in a broader research project on so-called con-
spiracy theories, a prime example of a concept and a burgeoning academic
field where scholars tend to externalize and sometimes pathologize uncer-
tainties about political power.