Meta-autoethnography as a co-constructive descriptive and narrative methodology: Post-pandemic responses to new research agendas in intercultural relations

Abstract

This paper presents a meta-autoethnography utilizing a co-constructive lens for mixed-method descriptive and narrative analyses to explore post-pandemic responses and new emerging research trends in intercultural relations. Four co-authors combined their research output related to the COVID-19 pandemic, which entails descriptive analyses of the selected 20 quantitative and 20 qualitative publications. The descriptive results summarized primary contexts, processes, and findings. In turn, the co-authors captured their subjectivities, co-constructively undertaking historical, social network, and autobiographical projects. They reflected on each one’s historical, comparative, and critical sensitivities to propose new research agendas in intercultural relations. The co-authors considered theoretical insights from C. Wright Mills’ “The Sociological Imagination” and his conceptualizations of liberal practicality and interdisciplinary approaches to social science research. Therefore, this paper proposes essential research agendas in the intercultural context of Sino-foreign relations and beyond through methodologically rigorous analyses of quantitative and qualitative publications and collective writings.