The Listening Guide: Replacing Judgment With Curiosity

This introduction describes the method and the methodology-the way of working and the underlying logic-of the Listening Guide (LG). It brings into focus three aspects of the Guide that are commonly overlooked or misunderstood: (a) the framing of the entire research process as a relational activity, (b) the distinction between listening for a voice and identifying a theme, and (c) the attention to an associative logic and to evidence of dissociation. By directing the researcher to listen for multiple voices and track their interplay, the LG resists the binary logic of coding categories. In addition to further explicating the method, the special issue provides examples of how the LG has been used with a variety of questions and in a range of contexts; it highlights innovations in use of the method and underscores the radical potential in replacing judgment with curiosity.