Interpretivism

Interpretivism in sociology

Interpretivism is a philosophical position in sociology. What does this mean?

Philosophical positions are broad, overarching ideas about how humans are and how they should be studied. Philosophical positions ask fundamental questions, such as:

• What causes human behaviour? People's personal motivations or social structures?

• How should humans be studied?

• Can we make generalizations about humans and society?

There are two main, opposing philosophical positions in sociological theory: positivism and interpretivism.

Interpretivism, on the other hand, introduced a new approach to sociological research. Interpretivist scholars wanted to go beyond empirical data collection. They were interested in not only objective facts within society but in the subjective views, emotions, opinions and values of the people they studied.

Positivism vs. interpretivism

Table 1 - The implications of choosing Positivism vs. Interpretivism.

Meaning of interpretivism

History of interpretivism

Interpretivism comes from 'social action theory', which stated that in order to understand human actions, we must search for the individual motives behind those actions. Max Weber introduced the term 'Verstehen' (to understand) and argued that observing subjects is not enough, sociologists must gain an empathetic understanding of the motives and backgrounds of the people they study in order to make valuable conclusions.

Following Weber, the Chicago School of Sociology also emphasized the importance of understanding cultural norms and values of different societies in order to interpret human actions accurately within that society. Thus, the interpretivist approach was developed in opposition to the traditional positivist approach to social research.

Interpretivists focused on individuals, doing micro-sociology.

Interpretivism later spread to other fields of research, too. Several scholars of anthropology, psychology and history adopted the approach.

Interpretivist approach

According to interpretivism there is no 'objective reality'. Reality is determined by the personal perspectives of humans and by the cultural norms and beliefs of the society they exist in.

Sociologists of interpretivism tend to be rather sceptical towards 'scientific sociology' and its research methods. They argue that official statistics and surveys are useless in understanding individuals' behaviour and social structures because they are socially constructed themselves in the first place.

They prefer to use qualitative methods.

Some of the most typical research methods chosen by interpretivists include:

• participant observations

• unstructured interviews

• ethnographic studies (immersing yourself into the researched environment)

• focus groups

A secondary research method preferred by interpretivists would be personal documents, such as diaries or letters.

Fig. 2 - Personal diaries are useful sources of interpretivist sociologists.

The main aim is to build a rapport with the participants and find a way to extract detailed information from them.

Examples of interpretivism

We will look at two studies, that adopted the interpretivist approach.

Paul Willis: Learning to Labour (1977)

Paul Willis used participant observation and unstructured interviews to find out why working-class pupils rebel against school and end up failing more often than middle-class pupils.

The interpretivist method was crucial in his research. The boys would not necessarily have been as truthful and open in a survey as they were in a group interview.

Willis, in the end, found that it is the middle-class culture of schools that working-class students feel alienated from, which results in them adopting anti-school behaviour and without qualifications start working in working-class jobs.

Howard Becker: Labelling Theory (1963)

Howard Becker observed and interacted with marijuana users in Chicago's jazz bars, where he played the piano. As he was involved with his research subjects in an informal way and started looking at crime and deviance from the individual's perspective rather than from above, he noticed that crime is something that people label as such, depending on the circumstances.

Based on these findings, he established his influential labelling theory, which was later used in the sociology of education as well.

Advantages and disadvantages of interpretivism

Below, we will look at some advantages and disadvantages of interpretivism in sociology and sociological research.

Table 2 - Advantages and Disadvantages of Interpretivism.