Chronicle of a Research Project

The Personal Testimonies of its Researchers in a Counter-Memory Tone

Abstract

I am part of the team of researchers of a research project funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), a Portuguese institution supporting scientific research, based on action-research and greatly oriented to the promotion of local development, in particular the Murça region, in the north-eastern interior of Portugal. The team researchers’ desirable self-reflection was helped from the beginning by carrying out a record of personal testimonies on the implementation of the research, through the continued writing of a “notebook”, called Chronicle, which was passed around the researchers and fellows. It is such written material that this article proposes to analyse, using the theoretical notions of counter-memory and ego-research principles. I approach the Chronicle as an embodiment of the Project's own implementation process, whose analysis provides some horizontalization of its memories, since these are not restricted to the institutional voice of official reports, and a comprehensive understanding of how personal narratives can produce theory.