The Fabrication of Meaning: Ethnomethodology in Multicultural Research Interaction

Abstract

Empirical research in multicultural and socially distant settings depends not only on the design of research instruments, but also on the situated interaction through which questions become meaningful to participants. In community-based research, especially in traditional Amazonian communities, the application of closed-ended questionnaires raises important methodological questions about how researchers and interviewees negotiate meanings in practice. Carrying out empirical research using surveys or questionnaires is challenging, particularly when significant social and cultural distances exist between researchers and participants. This article examines the interview situation in closed-ended questionnaire application. Through the ethnomethodological documentary method of interpretation, we analyze interview transcriptions from fieldwork within an Amazon protected area. The article presents evidence that interview participants actively constructed their own interpretive concepts using the documentary method. It demonstrates the analytical importance of the interview situation in aligning empirical data with social reality.

Keywords: ethnomethodology, empirical research, research methods, structured questionnaires.

DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/16-2-06

Publication date: September 28^th 2026