Places as Language and Text: Christian Norberg-Schulz and Paul Ricoeur inspiring a framework for ethnographic Health research

Abstract

The article focuses on the relationship between people and places from the perspective of a participant observer. We use examples of assisting living facilities in the mental health field, and demonstrate how the process of understanding a research setting as Language and text, may allow for new perspectives to emerge. Mainly by introducing the Norwegian architect Christian Norberg-Schulz’s phenomenology of place, and complementing it with the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur’s theory of interpretation; we demonstrate how
these understandings help us to include the physical environment. Norberg-Schultz describes places by following characteristics: a) The place's basic language, b) The place's material language and c) The history of the place. Inspired by Ricoeur, a place becomes a text which has d) emancipated itself from its origin and e) is living its own life. The discussion relates to how, by taking the material surroundings into account, the researcher becomes able to better understand the way people live. The conclusions show the importance
of the role of the researchers’ personal experiences and emotions when being present together with the participants in the same physical environment.

Full text

121
NORDISK SYGEPLEJEFORSKNING · NR 2 – 2015 · VOL. 5 · SIDE 121–132 · ISSN 1892-2678
© UNIVERSITETSFORLAGET · WWW.IDUNN.NO/NSF
FAGFELLEVURDERT
Places as language and text
Christian Norberg-Schulz and Paul Ricoeur
inspiring a framework for ethnographic
health research
Inger Beate Larsen
Professor, PhD · University of Agder, Department of Psychosocial Health ·
inger.b.larsen@uia.no
Michael Hohl
Professor, PhD · Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, Department of Design ·
mh@hohlwelt.com
The article focuses on the relationship between people and places from the perspective of a participant observer. We use examples of
assisting living facilities in the mental health field, and demonstrate how the process of understanding a research setting as language
and text, may allow for new perspectives to emerge. Mainly by introducing the Norwegian architect Christian Norberg-Schulz’s phe-
nomenology of place, and complementing it with the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur’s theory of interpretation; we demonstrate how
these understandings help us to include the physical environment. Norberg-Schultz describes places by following characteristics: a)
The place's basic language, b) The place's material language and c) The history of the place. Inspired by Ricoeur, a place becomes a
text which has d) emancipated itself from its origin and e) is living its own life. The discussion relates to how, by taking the material
surroundings into account, the researcher becomes able to better understand the way people live. The conclusions show the impor-
tance of the role of the researchers’ personal experiences and emotions when being present together with the participants in the same
physical environment.
Keywords Ethnography, language/ linguistics, Norberg-Schulz, observation, participant, place, Ricoeur, text
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when conducting eth-
nographic research, we
have to investigate and
understand human be-
ings, the way they act and the way they
communicate in different settings. In
addition, it is obvious that we have to
take into consideration the places
themselves, where people are present,
because different places influence the
way people act and talk. Thus, the liv-
ing environment and the particular at-
mosphere of a place become important
in the research of care. The setting de-
scribed in this article is an assisted liv-
ing facility for people suffering from
mental health problems living in a Nor-
wegian municipality. The example used
was gained during ongoing fieldwork,
but also was inspired by fieldwork in
mental health institutions worked out
by one of the authors (1–3).
The article focuses on the relation-
ship between people and places from
the perspective of a participant observ-
er. By interpreting the buildings, rooms
and things (materiality) as language
and as text, the connections between
people and places might be better un-
derstood and new perspectives might
be added to the researchers’ under-
standings of what is happening. In oth-
er words, when we argue for interpret-
ing places as language and text, we im-
ply that places may be listened to and
read in one way or another. When “lis-
tening and reading” in this manner to
the research area, we argue, that it is
possible to get a deeper and better un-
derstanding of people’s life. The re-
search question is:
What contribution is made to ethno-
graphic health research through the un-
derstanding of the materiality of a
place as language and text?
In this article, the methodology in-
cludes to view a research setting as a
place of language and text and that
through this perspective a patient’s con-
dition might be understood better and
with more empathy. We will first intro-
duce the stronger part of this methodol-
ogy, Christian Norberg-Schulz’ phe-
nomenology of place, and what he calls
“the language of place” (4–8). As a con-
trast and a discursive counterpart we
will present the French philosopher Paul
Ricoeur and his work on hermeneutics
and human sciences, and his particular
focus on the interpretation of texts (9).
The discussion will emphasis places as
spoken languages and texts and will re-
late to well-known principles of ethno-
graphic research, such as the non-neutral
researcher, the context, degrees of partic-
ipation and the insider’s perspective.
Christian Norberg-Schulz:
Phenomenology of places
Christian Norberg-Schulz’s (1926–2000)
philosophy of architecture is a part of
the phenomenological tradition re-
ferred to as the phenomenology of
places (10) writes:
At the same time, phenomenology ap-
peared to me as a method well suited to
penetrate the world of everyday exist-
ence, since architecture is in fact at the
service of totality, which the term “world
life” implies, a totality that eludes scien-
tific procedures (p. 15).
W
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Norberg-Schulz (10) understands ar-
chitecture as the physical setting in
which social life takes place. A place,
however, is not only a part of a geo-
graphical space in which something is
located. People live in places, and in
the encounter between people and the
physical structure, life takes place.
What, then, is a place? From Nor-
berg-Schulz’s point of view, place and
life are strongly connected. If we know
where we are, we know who we are.
When we tell people where we live, we
simultaneously tell them more about
ourselves. If the place has long-term,
historical traditions, it will thus connect
us to our ancestors. We will be rooted to
the place and feel at home. A real place,
in the words of Norberg-Schulz, will
gratify the need of dwelling (5, 10). This
has to do with both a sense of security
and inspiration to development. There-
fore, a place is an expression of identity
and meaning. One might wonder why
Norberg-Schulz does not use the word
“space” instead of “place”. He writes
nothing about his word choice, but we
understand his statements as in line of
lived space, where humans inscribe
themselves in space by activities and by
cultural and social functions.
The language of architecture, as
Norberg-Schulz (5) claims, is both a
“basic language” and a “material lan-
guage”. The first one is universal and
applies to everyone; it is an embodied,
strong and stable language. Despite its
strength, it is difficult to describe or to
depict because it is not concrete. This
language is about the genius loci, the
spirit of the place, which represent a
kind of atmosphere making us feel we
are present. To be “present”, has to do
with identification and perhaps a state
of receptivity and connectedness to the
living surroundings.
The second language is the material
one. The appearance tells us what kind
of building it is: Is it a private house or
an assisting living facility? The material
language of a place consists not only of
buildings. The location, the interior,
the furniture and other things are all
“speaking” as well. When we enter
these kinds of buildings, the spaces
within confirm our expectations. This
second language can be more easily re-
flected verbally and with photos be-
cause it is concrete. Obviously, the ma-
terial language can change if one tears
down walls or constructs new ones,
buys new furniture or paintings. There-
fore, places are not an ever-present, sta-
ble entity. In the words of Norberg-
Schulz (5): “Constancy and change are
characteristics of a place.” (p. 79).
When one feels “at home”, both
these languages are in harmony with
the verbal language the residents speak.
Relations between these languages
mean a good atmosphere and health
(genius loci). When one enters an as-
sisted living facility where these lan-
guages come together in harmony, it is
the resulting atmosphere that will
make resident and staff to feel at home.
Some of the materiality will talk to the
resident; he will know where he is and
who he is. The same applies to the
staff: other kinds of materiality will
speak to them. Now let us complement
this view with Paul Ricoeur’s position.
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Paul Ricoeur: What is a text?
Paul Ricoeur (1939–2005) was rooted
in the French phenomenological tradi-
tion and called his position herme-
neutic phenomenology. He claims that
“a text is any discourse fixed by writ-
ing” (9, p. 145), which means “wheth-
er it is graphics or recording, is inscrip-
tion of speech – an inscription which,
thanks to the subsisting character of
the engraving, guarantees the persist-
ence of speech.” (9, p. 145). Fixation in
written text replaces the speech in the
same way as reading is related to text.
One of Ricoeur’s important points is
the impossibility to claim that to read
is to be in dialogue with the author
through her work. When the text re-
places the speech, he claims there is no
longer a sender. Thus, the text replaces
the language and emancipates itself.
The text preserves thinking, which be-
comes available to the individual and
collective memory. A change from oral
language to graphic signs takes place.
This radically transforms the relation
between language and the world, and
between language and different subjec-
tive understandings.
Ricoeur’s referential functions about
addressing oneself to another speaker
are about saying something about
something else. It is about the referent
of the speech. The sentences ought to
speak the truth. Every utterance is con-
nected to the world. What happens
when the text replaces speech? First, it
disconnects the movement of the refer-
ence from the presentation. Thus, we
might say that the dialogue is separated
from the text. Lastly, the task of the
reading is to fulfill the reference. As the
reader has no reference; the text will
have no context. It will be ‘in the air’
and outside the world. The specific text
is free to enter into relations with other
texts.
Contrary to Norberg-Schulz, Ricoeur
asserts that the concept of text claims a
renewal of the concept of explanation
and interpretation. Text interpretation
brings objectification, and this is im-
portant to Ricoeur. He calls it the ‘pro-
ductivity of distance’ or ‘critical dis-
tance’ which leads to various nuances.
While reading, we might, on the one
hand, be in the tension of the text; the
text is outside the world and emanci-
pated from the author. Thus, the text
has an inner life, and we explain it on
the basis of structure and internal rela-
tions. This explanatory model is the
semiotic one. On the other hand, we
can lift the suspense from the text and
fulfill the text in speech. The written
text demands a reader. Reading is pos-
sible because the text is not closed in it-
self but open toward something else.
To read is to link a new discourse to-
gether with the discourse in the text. In
this manner, we interpret the text. The
interpretation is fulfilled in the self-in-
terpretation of a subject who will
achieve a better self-understanding.
Ricoeur (9) calls this “to struggle
against cultural distance”, which im-
plies a fusion of textual interpretation
with self-interpretation.
The text is emancipated from the
speech itself, but the main act to which
the text refers is preserved. The text
seeks to place us in its meaning. The
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meaning of the action occurs in the dia-
logue between the reader and the text.
In Ricoeur’s hermeneutical arch, ex-
planation and understanding are inte-
grated as a total understanding from
reading, as a recapturing of meaning.
Thus, to explain is to reveal the struc-
ture of the text; to interpret is to place
oneself in the meaning of the text.
We have to claim that Norberg-
Schulz does not deal with written texts
and Ricoeur does not handle places. At
the same time, when bringing them to-
gether, they draw different insight and
bring something new into the under-
standing of ethnographic research.
Places, language, text and
being a participant researcher
Will the participant researcher better
understand the situation of people liv-
ing in assisted living facilities when in-
cluding the material surroundings? To
understand places as language and text
is in many ways out of touch with real,
everyday experience. Apparently this
has nothing to do with ethnographic
research. Most of us think of language
as something one understands or does
not understand, whether you have
learned it from birth or later on in
school or by experience. Additionally,
verbal language has sounds, tone and
pitch. Written text is about letters and
signs, words and sentences. Places are
something totally different, compris-
ing things such as trees and flowers,
buildings, rooms and objects. Seeming-
ly the latter have nothing to do with
language and text. Language is some-
thing that is understood because one
can listen but also because you know
the code. The text is something you can
grasp because you have cultural knowl-
edge and you can read. Additionally,
the text is printer’s ink on paper or a
digital display on a screen– it is uni-
dimentional. The material place and
the surroundings have colors, sounds,
smells and shapes – it has depth.
We may interpret the two philoso-
phers differently when it comes to em-
phasizing text; Norberg-Schulz seeks to
understand the relations between peo-
ple and materiality as language;
Ricoeur seeks to understand people’s
way of acting as text. Several research-
ers have made use of Ricoeur’s herme-
neutics in the context of health science
(11–16). Moreover, when places are al-
located language, we will sense the
contours of a relationship between
places and texts. As shown, Norberg-
Schulz verbalizes places; he attributes
to them basic and material language.
Martinsen (17) writes about rooms
which are singing and rooms which are
screaming, while Andersson (18) ad-
dresses how people are able to be at-
tentive to the language of objects and
consequently are able to enter into a di-
alogue with the objects. If we continue
to think of language and text as having
something in common, then Ricoeur
has important advice for the field
worker when she is present in the field
e.g. together with people in assisted liv-
ing facilities. Norberg-Schulz empha-
sizes the importance of listening to the
language of the place.
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The non-neutral researcher
Let us imagine that ethnographic re-
searchers are investigating how people
with mental health problems live their
daily lives in society. The area is an as-
sisted living facility. As a participant
observer we meet different people in
different homes. Some of the houses
have a welcoming atmosphere; one
likes the residents and the interior, and
one feels relaxed. In other houses, one
might have a very different experience.
Will the researcher’s own experience of
being in the houses teach us something
about the daily life of people with men-
tal health problems?
Agar (19) and Hammersley and At-
kinson (20) describe the researcher as a
non-neutral person who has to be con-
scious of her social norms and values.
Thus, a researcher is not objective, but
uses her personal experiences when in-
terpreting a place. As a subject, the re-
searcher is present, and the place might
easily be described from the research-
er’s subjective point of view. To avoid
this, the researcher has to put her own
personal values and opinions aside and
aim to meet the research area openly
and without bias (20). With an unbi-
ased approach, one allows the place to
speak to you.
Norberg-Schulz (5) states that places
are subjected to emotional identifica-
tion. Thus, as a researcher, one should
not put aside personal experiences but
rather use one’s feelings to better un-
derstand the life in the assisted living
facility. Norberg-Schulz claims that
places are something permanent–
something given – and in this respect,
he is referring to the way in which ba-
sic language constitutes a kind of uni-
versal atmosphere. If the researcher
feels at home in assisted living, one
might consequently interpret the in-
formants to feel the same. The almost
physical emotions experienced when
visiting a place become a kind of em-
phatic identification of oneself with the
person living in the house. You cannot
photograph the atmosphere; conse-
quently, you have to listen to the lan-
guage of the place. The basic language
is understandable if the researchers
opens up and use all senses. The next
step will be to write down as precisely
as possible your emotional state, your
thoughts and impressions. Such de-
scriptions might be subjective and po-
etic and help one to understand the
daily life in the assisted living facility.
Norberg-Schulz’s other language is
the material one. It is easier to describe
because it is concrete. One can write
down how many rooms the informant
has at his disposal, the size of the
rooms, what colors they have etc. Obvi-
ously, this description will be more neu-
tral than the first. It will be precise and
one can supplement and expand the de-
scription with photos. At the same time
the material surroundings also repre-
sent a changing life. The researcher
might observe traces from an earlier
wall, a photo of an older relative or a
brand new television. Something has
disappeared and something new has
happened. Being inside the assisted liv-
ing facility, the researcher, by her very
presence, also contributes to change for
the person living there. She is in the
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room looking at pictures, commenting
on the colors and chatting with the res-
ident. Thus, the researcher’s earlier ex-
periences from different historical, cul-
tural and human contexts influence the
relationship between the informant and
the participant-observer. What one
might call a non-neutral and personal
attitude occurs in the relationship be-
tween the researcher, the person living
in the house and the material surround-
ings. There is an ongoing, continual di-
alogue between the language of a place
and the people present, Norberg-Schulz
claims. In addition to the more neutral
descriptions of the material language,
the researcher has to describe the situa-
tions and dialogues and how she relates
to the different rooms, to what occurs
in the dialogue, and to whether she per-
sonally is comfortable with the interior
decoration or not. We can see that Nor-
berg-Schultz treats places as unchange-
able and changeable at the same time,
but he emphasises the basic language as
the stronger one. Consequently, re-
searchers have to be aware of their in-
fluence on the atmosphere and the per-
son living in the house and carefully
write field notes where she becomes a
part of the observations.
With the help of Ricoeur’s (9) theory,
we might say that the interpretation of
the person living in an assisted living fa-
cility involves the researcher as a “read-
er of life”. The daily life lived within a
place is seen as a kind of text that the
researcher has to read. A text consists
of words becoming sentences, sentences
becoming stories, like a place consisting
of a picture, a scent or a flower pot as
part of a decorated room becoming a
home that may also tell us a story.
When reading the room, the researcher
will read it related to her own personal
experiences, from her own life’s per-
spective. If she has a close relative in an
equivalent assisted living facility, the re-
searcher’s subjective and personal un-
derstanding will influence the research.
This is what Ricoeur calls the fusion of
text, interpretation and self-interpreta-
tion and maybe also of prejudice. The
lives of the people in the assisted living
facility move throughout its structure
and become transformed into a “text”
that the researcher can learn to under-
stand, from her personal perspective.
There are potentially as many different
perspectives of understanding and de-
scriptions of the setting as there are re-
searchers. When the researcher reads
life, she makes the text a part of herself.
The text as subject implies that other
researchers would arrive at different
understandings. The researcher’s pres-
ence is marked in the house by who she
is, where she is and her personal knowl-
edge, in the same way as Norberg-
Schulz claims that material language
changes depending on the researcher’s
different experiences. To ensure valid
results, the researcher has to openly de-
scribe the research process, thereby ena-
bling other researchers to reconceptual-
ize what occurred.
The context
Agar (19) claims that when describing
interrelations between people, one will
always find “A dash of history, some-
thing about the various environments –
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physical, biological and social – and
some details on the things the group
does and the beliefs they hold.” (p. 1).
It is necessary for the researcher to re-
late to the different contexts in which
people are present. To capture the total
overview, we have to see a situation as
interconnected with something else.
Agar (19) continues, saying that the re-
searcher, in order to succeed, has to be
curious about how people are living in-
side these contexts.
Norberg-Schulz comes to a similar
conclusion. When different people are
connected, they are also connected to
their ancestors and to their surround-
ings. Thus, biological and material life
forms a totality. Even after a place has
changed, the history will be seen in ma-
teriality and in people’s way of acting.
Thus, materiality refers to past and
present. This implies that the one who
was responsible for planning a building
for a specific purpose – the contracting
builder –, and the person who designs
the building – the architect – will influ-
ence the place even long after the build-
ing is inhabited. For instance, if a place
was originally built as an office build-
ing and later transformed into an as-
sisted living facility, ideas, discussions
and thought patterns from the first pe-
riod might influence present life in the
converted building (1). Moreover, the
researchers also have to investigate and
present the origin of a place, and also
become familiar with the architectural
drawings and old photos to get a sense
of the building’s history.
Ricoeur might disagree. Contracting
builders and architects can be com-
pared here with the author of a text.
When thought is transformed into
written text, it starts living a life of its
own, meaning that the place is no long-
er connected to its history and is free to
emerge on its own terms. Accordingly,
we might say that houses, after being
built and turned over to their users,
will live their own lives, independent
from the people who contributed to
their design and construction. On the
contrary, for Norberg-Schulz, this
means a place disconnected from its
history and where the past is no longer
present in the place, and in the way
people are talking and acting. It in-
volves a movement from one context to
another. Thus, the researcher has to be
present here and now and concentrate
on peoples’ actions in different rooms
and their relationship to the interior
and to each other at the time of obser-
vation. She must explain people’s ac-
tions in different rooms here and now,
and not take the history of the place
into account. The researcher becomes
the reader who reads the present text
or the place influenced by the contem-
porary time of which the researcher is a
part.
The researcher has to be interested
in people’s habits related to certain
contexts, Agar (19) states, and accord-
ing to Ricoeur, surroundings are a
means by which to describe the way
people act. In order to understand a
place, in Ricoeur’s understanding of a
text, one has to emancipate oneself
from the history, from what might be
“embedded in the walls”. We have to
abandon the architect and the builder
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in the same manner as Ricoeur has
abandoned the author and the original
context of the text. In the new context,
the researcher is no longer interested in
the history of the place. Both Agar and
the architect Norberg-Schulz disagree
on this abandonment.
Degrees of participation
Ethnographic researchers claim the
need to eliminate the differences be-
tween us and them, seeking reciprocal
empathy (19,20). Through participant
observation, the aim is to understand
ways of living which are not the re-
searcher’s own. The intention is to let
the surroundings inform you, being
present with all your senses; capturing
the insider’s perspective and then dis-
tancing oneself without losing the con-
nection. In most ethnographic studies,
there is a need to establish a balance
between participation and observation.
Norberg-Schulz (21) asserts that we
are only able to understand a place if
we understand the distinctive character
of that place; the atmosphere. If we as
researchers are sensitive towards the
place and listen to the atmosphere, the
place will reveals “itself”.
We become ‘place empathizers’ and
the division between the people living
in the place and the people visiting it,
become blurred. Through participant
observation the researcher becomes a
part of the place and is able to better
understand the way of life of people
with mental health problems. Thus the
differences between her and them are
diminished. Through participation and
dialogue with people and materiality, it
becomes possible to obtain the infor-
mation upon which further knowledge
depends.
In terms of basic language, we might
say that, through “talking to every-
body”, it exceeds individual experienc-
es. At the same time, Norberg-Schulz
claims that experience is the connec-
tion between the basic language and
the material language which constitute
the particular atmosphere. He connects
the close emotionality related to a place
to the basic language, and these two to-
gether interplay with the material lan-
guage. The approach of Norberg-
Schulz encourages the researcher to
participate as much as possible in all
kinds of activities of daily life, meaning
that one has to be present during day-
time, evenings and nights. One also has
to accompany the informants to other
places they visit, e.g. day care centers,
to get the full impression of the way
they are living their daily life.
Ricoeur is concerned with both con-
nectedness and distance to the text and
works with this tension between the
two all the time. When he is inside the
structure of the text, he is close, ap-
proaching the text from the inside and
investigating the sentences and genre,
just as we, as researchers in an assisted
living facility, have to closely investi-
gate life in the building, the words the
residents use in the different rooms, the
shape and color of the living room and
so on. This connectivity is important
for the researcher to maintain, while at
the same time she has to keep progress-
ing. Knowledge development has to do
with critical distance. Ricoeur calls it
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‘productivity of distance’ or ‘critical
distance’. It is about unmasking and
thereby making clear that we belong to
the world of today. Distancing our-
selves from the situation allows us to
see more clearly and to better under-
stand the world. This dual perspective
reconciles the explanation and the un-
derstanding in what Ricoeur calls the
hermeneutic arch.
The arch stretches between the struc-
ture of the text and the personal expe-
riences of the reader. This interpreta-
tion surmounts the cultural distance.
When the researcher shifts between
connectedness and distance, the mate-
rialized place and the people present
will start living their own life as new
text, transformed to represent more
universal knowledge about places. This
transformation might suggest new ide-
as to policy makers on how to build
better assisted living facilities.
The insider’s perspective
In our example, ethnographic research
made it possible to describe people’s
lived world from the insider’s perspec-
tive. The idea is to study social life as di-
rectly as possible. In order to be able to
grasp this perspective, it is essential to
be open and let the field do the teaching,
while allowing for hypotheses and is-
sues to emerge from this process rather
than begin with presuppositions and bi-
ases. Therefore, the research questions
should rise from the place itself (19, 20).
Norberg-Schulz (4,5) shows that it is
necessary to listen to the language of a
place in order to become familiar with
the place. As a researcher, one is inside
the building together with the residents
and listening to the place. This open-
ness makes a connection possible. Being
inside the same building might help the
researcher to understand the insider’s
perspective. We need to be present in
different rooms and their interiors to-
gether with the people being observed.
To gain access to the residents’ own ex-
perience of their homes you have to try
to be a part of their life by getting them
to know, learn how they use the place,
how they move around, what they talk
about in different rooms etc. By so do-
ing, we will get the opportunity to un-
derstand the totality of the place; we
will be in touch with the basic language
and will feel the atmosphere. Besides
this, we will recognize the material lan-
guage and discover the details. This to-
tality will put us into a special kind of
mood. This might have something to do
with the field’s own hypothesis, e.g.
that assisted living isolates the people
living there from the world outside. But
are we sure the researcher’s presence is
a way to understand people living in as-
sisted facilities as isolated? If Norberg-
Schulz is right, all places have a particu-
lar atmosphere that speaks to every-
body, regardless of the details. This
means that what affects me, also affects
others and might represent the insider’s
perspective. So if the researcher feels
distanced from the outside world, one
might presume the same thing to be
true of the people living there.
Contrary to Norberg-Schulz, Ricoeur
makes the text meaningful to the read-
er. The text is a text on its own. He
calls this explaining and interpreting a
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PLACES AS LANGUAGE AND TEXT
NORDISK SYGEPLEJEFORSKNING · NR 2 – 2015 · VOL. 5 131
text. When connecting these concepts,
we will be unable to capture the subjec-
tive message; instead, we will explain
by closely watching the structure at the
same time as we keep in mind the criti-
cal distance. Thus, we will notice the
contradictions and the variations, and
we will objectify the text. Ricoeur
might say that if the researcher ap-
proaches the place as a text, the place’s
own hypothesis is no longer important
because the place will have a life on its
own for the researcher.
Using Norberg-Schulz’s term “the ma-
terial language” is perhaps what Ricoeur
emphasizes, because we may easily com-
pare material language with the struc-
ture of a text. At the same time Ricoeur
goes further in his explanation. The
structure of the text has to be fulfilled as
lived and current communication.
Both philosophers emphasize the in-
sider’s perspective in different ways.
Norberg-Schulz will agree with the
need to become familiar with the plac-
es’ own current problems, just as the
theory of ethnographic research also re-
quires. This is about the subjectivity of
places. On the other hand, Ricoeur ob-
jectifies places, and the researcher is re-
sponsible for the research questions;
e.g. about how people with mental
health problems live their daily lives in
an assisting living facility and in society.
Conclusion
In this article we have demonstrated
how an understanding of the materiali-
ty of a place as language and text can
provide new perspectives for ethno-
graphic health research. In this process,
the researcher becomes aware of the re-
search setting as a field in which people
are viewed as being connected to their
physical environment. Norberg-Schulz’s
theory helps us take on the perspective
of the informants because what he
characterizes as the “universal lan-
guage” of a place applies to everybody.
As researchers, we are like everybody
else, meaning that we do not relinquish
our own point of view but instead take
our personal experiences into account,
including our own emotions, in the
transcriptions and interpretations of
the text. “The basic language” of Nor-
berg-Schultz has something in common
with Ricoeur’s rules for text interpreta-
tion, or understanding of peoples’ ac-
tions as a text, meaning we have to in-
clude the material details of a place to
be able to understand peoples’ actions.
Here photography might be of great
importance (2). While Norberg-Schulz
sees the relevance of history, Ricoeur
claims a kind of contextual free place.
The former tells the researcher to in-
clude history in the interpretations in
order to become able to understand the
daily life of today, while the latter is the
spokesman for emancipation from his-
tory. We argue in favor of including the
history of the place, because materiali-
ty will speak even if we try not to lis-
ten. The task of the ethnographic re-
searcher is somewhat similar to the de-
tective work of Sherlock Holmes. One
has to feel the atmosphere in the house,
and one has to search for material de-
tails in order to construct a full picture,
and of course one has to be in dialogue
with the participants.
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INGER BEATE LARSEN AND MICHAEL HOHL
NORDISK SYGEPLEJEFORSKNING · NR 2 – 2015 · VOL. 5
132
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