Conclusiones Generales

45 _{For more information on VCI and court observations in England or in other countries, and on}

the heterogeneity of the court interpreter’s working environment, see Braun et al. (2016b) or Fowler (2012), for instance.

110 When discussing the need to triangulate data, Healy and Perry argue that a

participant’s perception of reality is

a window of reality through which a picture of reality can be triangulated with other perceptions (…). That is, realism relies on multiple perceptions about a single reality (…). These multiple perceptions involve triangulation of several data sources, and of several peer researcher’s interpretations of those triangulations. (Healy & Perry, 2000, p. 123)

As discussed in Section 2.1 above, different mixed methods have been used in IS to triangulate the data sources (e.g. questionnaire combined with interviews). However, as this study is anchored within ANT, the use of a questionnaire would have infringed ANT’s ontology by imposing the researcher’s views and specific repertoire when designing questions and potential answers. Furthermore, when examining the above studies in 2.1, whose foci were the interpreter or user’s perceptions gathered through interviews as their main method, it appears that scholars did not triangulate their data. This could be explained by the fact that there is currently a lack of research on how to triangulate data sources when the research focus is on the perception of one specific group of individuals. For these reasons, the triangulation of data sources was not used in this doctoral thesis.

Notwithstanding the above and in order to ensure data validity, triangulation for the role-space models was obtained instead through peer researcher’s

triangulation. More specifically, triangulation was achieved through analyst triangulation, whereby other analysts critically reviewed the data findings (this triangulation method has ben discussed and applied by scholars such as Patton, 1999, 2002; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2006). To this end, three scholars in Translation and Interpreting studies were asked to verify three interviews each (hereafter referred to as S1, S2, and S3). This amounted to half of the data (nine interviews) being verified which, taking into account their availabilities, was deemed an acceptable number of interviews46_{. During their reviews, they were} asked to assess the validity of the role-space models by comparing each

46 _{It is worth noting that the three scholars specialise in various research fields, but that they all}

had a keen interest (through their teaching, papers and publications) in sociology in Translation and Interpreting Studies. As role-space and Translation are anchored within sociology, their interdisciplinary research and their ability to verify and comment on the data validity was an asset in this project.

111 participant’s interview with the role-space model created in Appendix A. To do so, they were provided with a role-space fact sheet (see Appendix D), and they were also referred to Llewellyn-Jones and Lee (2014)’s monograph. In order to reflect the role-space models created, S1, S2, and S3 were all attributed one participant with experience in either VCI A or B, one participant with experience in both VCI A and VCI B, and one participant with a split role-space model47_{. This distribution} also reflects the participants’ various qualifications, numbers of cases conducted in VCI, their years of experience as a court interpreter in court, and from the point of view of research design, the interview medium48_{. The findings from the analyst} triangulation are discussed in more depth in Chapter 7. The individual distribution of the participants’ interviews between the three scholars is summarised in Table 2 below.

Scholars Participants’ interviews analysed

S1 P7, P13, P14

S2 P8, P16, P17

S3 P4, P6, P12

Table 2: Allocation of participants' interviews

Furthermore, the data generated in the interviews was also triangulated through theory triangulation (Carter, Bryant-Lukosius, Dicenso, Blythe, & Neville, 2014). By analysing the interviews through role-space and Translation, the data will not only reveal how court interpreters perceive their role in VCI, but also how they

negotiate such roles, and the extent to which the use of technologies impacts on their role perception.

Finally, one cannot underestimate the impact that the researcher’s voice has in terms of conducting the field work and analysing the data. In line with Latour (1999)’s study and Stalder (2000)’s article, the researcher in this project is considered a hybrid actor in the sense that he is reporting on interviews during which participants narrated their experience. However, the researcher was also part of the network that was created during the interview with each participant, and in which he was an actor. It is worth noting that the researcher and the

47 _{For more information about split role-space models, refer to Chapter 5, Section 4.}

48 _{As discussed below, some interviews were conducted via Skype, while others occurred face-to-}

112 participants’ goals may differ in the interplay they create. Indeed, the participants are taking part in the study to narrate their experience in VCI A and/or VCI B, whilst the researcher’s focus is on their role perception, and how they negotiated it. Therefore, Translation and its various phases may be occurring during the interviews. In such a context, and in order to minimise the impact of the

researcher’s voice and not to impose his views on the participants, the researcher will not define himself as the Obligatory Passage Point (as discussed in Chapter 3), but he will follow the participants in their narration of events.

In summary, this section has justified the use of semi-structured interviews as the data collection method, which is in line with similar studies in IS, and is coherent with ANT methodology. The next section presents the research design that was developed in accordance with a method based on semi-structured interviews.