INTERPRETIVISM

Interpretivism

Interpretivism

Interpretivism has its roots in the German intellectual traditions of hermeneutics and phenomenology. Interpretivism is often erroneously equated with subjectivism, a view that interpretivism lacks objectivity, instead affording primacy to the idiosyncratic, subjective meanings of single actors with no necessary relation to a shared, intersubjective, and verifiable reality. If interpretivism were to assume fully subjective properties, this would suggest a potential for unlimited interpretations of observations and research data, with no means of verification or validation. Some have suggested that interpretivists reject generalization since each instance of observed social interaction is unique and social settings are complex and indeterminate (Schütz, 2066).

Interpretive understanding does not however equate with a degeneration to extreme subjectivism, unlimited interpretations, and the inability to make any kind of generalization. For Weber, the search for generalizations derived inductively from first-order data was both compatible with, and dependent on, meaningful understanding of social action. His ideal types were aimed to inductively derive second-order frameworks based on regularities and patterns of empirically observed and theorized phenomena. Umberto Eco further suggested that the potential for unlimited interpretations does not imply that all interpretations are equally likely or valid. Interpretations of texts (or other cultural manifestations), for example, can be informed or guided by the semantic meaning of the words, the internal coherence of the text, the cultural context, the interpreter's own frame of reference, and the interpreter's immersion into the life-worlds from which the texts or cultural artifacts arise from and refer to (Rex, 2006).

However, in some branches of interpretivism, language is regarded as the medium of everyday, practical social activity. The issue here is the relationship between this lay language and social scientific language, with a number of writers advocating that the latter should be derived from the former by a process of abduction. The choice is between the imposition of technical language on the social world and the derivation of technical language from the everyday language.

Social researchers have adopted a range of stances toward the research process and the participants. These positions range from complete detachment to committed involvement. Philosophers of social science have critically examined these stances in terms of their achievability and their consequences for research outcomes (Outhwaite, 2007).

Each stance is associated with the use of particular approaches to social enquiry and research strategies. The role of detached observer is concerned with objectivity and is associated with positivism and the logics of induction and deduction. The role ...