Examining Cross-Cultural Spaces and Researcher Positions in Narrative Research

This chapter explores cross-cultural spaces in narrative research, especially from the researcher’s point of view. Here, narratives are understood as relational, cultural and situated, and cross-cultural spaces as emerging between the researcher and significant others, especially research participants, in the research process. Through a dialogue between our own experiences of living and conducting research in different cultures and similar experiences of others in the research literature, we address the researcher’s position when making methodological choices in cross-cultural research. The chapter challenges the researcher’s position in the research field between insider–outsider positions, emphasises an understanding of cultural communication and different kinds of stories by producing and analysing narratives and suggests a readiness for creating new cross-cultural spaces for collaborations between researchers in cross-cultural narrative research. We highlight the often-downplayed influence of narratives of who we are as researchers and what exposure to different places brings to the cross-cultural space emerging between the researcher and significant others and, subsequently, to the narratives produced and reported.