Fiction as Method
摘要
In this chapter I engage the principal method I use in this volume. This method is fiction, or what I have come to appreciate as “docufiction.” Through this method, I elaborate a principal story guiding my characterization of both the good agency and the good community. Following the paradigm of fiction, I create characters, situations, contexts, and interactions that amplify the principles and content of the good human services can achieve by engaging a whole community as a place. Running through this chapter is the red thread of capability development—that it is not the sole responsibility of individuals to maximize their self-interests. Alternatively individuals within group and community life can come to realize common interests through collective action that benefits all. Why a story then? Why not report only the facts? The story is actually a composite of numerous communities with which I have worked closely. I offer the fictional account to humanize the content, engage readers, and lay out a strategy that could be rather dry in its nonfictional form. In this chapter, I engage the methodological turn within qualitative research in which fact and fiction blur. I treat the work as experimental so I can amplify themes in engaging ways, so hopefully they resonate with my readers. I do explain my method in this chapter so readers do not think I am merely inventing content. Informing the fictional stance are real-life cases. Like good fiction, the content emerges from the personal experience of the author. A touchstone here is witnessing. I am seeking to amplify the elements of the good I have witnessed through my consultation work, practice, and research.