Interpretivism

• Interpretivists


  Don't believe sociology is a science, nor should it try to be
• Interpretivists


  • Criticise positivism as being inadequate for the study of human beings
• Subject matter of sociology (Interpretivists)

  Meaningful social action, which can only be understood by successfully interpreting the meanings/motives of actors involved
• Sociology isn't a science because it deals with human meanings, not laws of cause and effect - our actions are based on interpreting stimuli and choosing how to respond, rather than an automatic reaction to stimuli
• Interpretivists argue that we're not puppets manipulated by social facts, but autonomous beings who construct the social world through the meanings we give to it
• Verstehen


  Understanding the subject's viewpoint to understand the meanings they give their actions
• Interpretivists


  • Reject the logic/methods of natural sciences, so therefore they reject quantitative methods of study
• Qualitative methods


  Unstructured interviews, personal documents and participant observations
• Douglas (1967) rejects the positivist view that external social facts determine our behaviour, and instead argues that individuals have free will and actions are based on meanings
• Douglas argues that we should use qualitative data from case studies of suicide to reveal actor's meanings and get a better ideal of the real suicide rate, rather than use objective official stats
• Types of interpretivism


  • Phenomenologists & ethnomethodologists completely reject the possibility of causal explanations of human behaviour, and instead take the approach that society isn't a real thing that determines our conduct
• Postmodernists do not believe that sociology is a science because they see science as a metanarrative (big story) and no more valid than other accounts of the world, which is why we shouldn't use the same approach for sociology
• Poststructuralist feminists argue that a dominant, scientific feminism excludes many groups of women, and some argue quantitative methods are oppressive and don't actually portray women's experiences