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spectively. In the process of their textual labour, these people revised their own idiosyn-
cratic sets of rules for doing interpretation' (Demeterio, 2001).
Demeterio (2001) gives a useful definition of hermeneutics as 'a theory, methodology and
praxis of interpretation that is geared towards the recapturing of meaning of a text, or
a text-analogue, that is temporally or culturally distant, or obscured by ideology and
false consciousness'.
Thus, the understanding that is sought is found within texts and text-analogues - records
that have been created by authors. These records might be as prosaic as a report, or as
interesting as a series of captured electronic mails (Lee, 1994), or even as a set of tran-
scripts of interviews and case study notes (Montealegre and Keil, 2000; Montealegre et
al., 1999). In any event, these documents purport to represent some sort of reality or
truth.
This search for understanding is influenced by several interesting factors that rely on
some assumptions that may or may not all be present and at work at any given time.
First, understanding can be viewed as an interpretive oscillation between several layers
or perspectives. This is often referred to as the 'hermeneutic circle or cycle', where one
examines a small fragment of knowledge and seeks to understand it, then looks at the
'whole' (whatever that means to the enquirer), and seeks understanding there as well -
the smaller fragment being part of the whole, and the whole being composed of many
smaller fragments. Understanding, then, is achieved when there is a consistency between
the whole and all its component parts and vice versa. Or, as stated by Myers (1994b, p.
191): 'This hermeneutic process continues until the apparent absurdities, contradictions
and oppositions in the organisation no longer appear strange, but make sense'.
Second, if understanding can be described as a stable oscillation between the parts of a
whole and each individual part exhibiting consistency, then the very act of 'searching
for understanding' would be the actual oscillation or (hermeneutic) cyclic action. As
one searches for understanding, one acquires a small new piece of knowledge or a minor
fact, seeks to understand this new piece in itself and also in the context of the already
acquired knowledge and existing understanding of the whole.
Third, how does one know that understanding has been achieved? The repeated cycling
between the parts and the whole will eventually yield consistency that is driven by the
sum of knowledge or data in front of the researcher. Should that knowledge be incom-
plete, the researcher would actually have no way of knowing that fact. The only really
useful test would be to introduce yet more data or facts and test by hermeneutically
cycling through again. If the number of resulting cycles is sufficiently small, or even
zero, then one could say that there is understanding, or as Myers (1994b, p. 191) would
have simply said - it 'makes sense'.
But understanding and the processes of its acquisition must be something more than
just the end product of a process. Kidder (1997, p. 1196) cites the seminal philosopher
Hans-Georg Gadamer on understanding:
If I am an English language speaker learning German, for example, I will very
likely pursue a course of study in which I learn a linguistic apparatus that is
neither spoken English nor spoken German. I will learn patterns of verb end-
ings, noun cases, systems of adjective and noun agreement, and such - categor-
ies I may never have applied to language before, although I had been speaking
language all my life. This apparatus is a third thing, a bridge to understanding
a language that is not the same as understanding that language. When the
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