Embracing Tensions through Narrative Inquiry into Experiences of People who are Homeless in Japan

Considering Response Communities: Spaces of Appearance in Narrative Inquiry

“…Drawing on two of Arendt’s books, The Human Condition (1958) and Men in Dark Times (1968), Kubota showed how participating in a narrative inquiry study could be understood as creating a space of appearance. Kubota (2017) inquired into the experiences of three men who experienced being homeless in Japan. She noted that Arendt’s work on “relational interactions in narrative inquiry build[s] a structure towards a space of appearance in which the political aspect is embedded” (Kubota, 2019, p. 3).…”

“…Furthermore, she helped us see the connections Arendt makes between stories and political action, through showing “how stories emerging through narrative inquiry reinforce the existing space of appearance and offer the possibility of creating new spaces of appearance” (Kubota, 2019, p. 3). Kubota’s (2017) interest was in showing how the relational space that she co-created with each participant was a space of appearance for the men in the study, men who, because they were homeless, lived within a limited narrow public space, a space in which they were invisible and silenced. Reading Kubota’s work raised questions for us, not only about the relational aspects of our work with participants, but also the relational work of response groups.…”

Lugones’s Metaphor of “World Travelling” in Narrative Inquiry

“…In the following section, using field notes from one study (Kubota, 2017) and interim research texts from another (Dewart, in process), we illustrate the ways Lugones’s work offers conceptual understandings to narrative inquirers in all phases of a narrative inquiry. Hiroko Kubota’s illustrates the ways Lugones’s concept is used in thinking with participants in the field.…”