Abstract:

In our day, resorting to the declarative is not sufficient, in particular when daily concerns and cultural practices are involved. Discourse is frequently stereotyped through cliches conveyed by public opinion as echoed by the media. Individuals are surrounded by analyses and statements regarding the society itself, with its events and its cultural phenomena; the opinion they express may reflect to a greater degree a general opinion current at the moment than it does their own feelings with reference to what they themselves have experienced. Apart from the danger of stereotype, declarative utterances run the risk of being incomplete etc, especially when it is a question of studying daily practices that are habitual or even repetitive. The respondent intentionally omits to mention certain aspects of his experience, because he considers them to be of no interest in the study context, or to look ridiculous from another person's viewpoint; or else the omission is involuntary in the case of certain practices, on account of their repetitive or virtually automatic character. These considerations have led DEMOSCOPIE to multiply its approaches aimed at completing the discourse and at sharpening apprehension of factual reality. In Part One, we discuss the various approaches, with special attention paid to systemic and sequential approaches. Part two is concerned above all with observation in actual situations and In real time.