Interpretive Interactionism (Applied Social Research Methods)

Denzin weaves together ideas from different epistemologies and methodologies (ethnography, feminist thought, critical theory, symbolic interactionist theory, etc.) to create an internally coherent and warranted justification for a form of inquiry that makes the problematic world of human lived experience accessible to an audience interested not simply in private woes but public troubles. The discerning teacher and student will immediately recognize that all the ‘standard’ issues in qualitative methods books are covered here but not in cookbook fashion. Thus, the book is itself an persuasive argument for the impossibility of divorcing thinking from doing, theory from practice.Thomas A. Schwandt, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignIn the beginning of the twenty-first century, there is a pressing demand to show how the practices of critical, interpretive qualitative research can help change the world in positive ways---this book shows social science researchers how to do this: First, by listening to and recording the stories people tell one another. Second, by then supplementing these stories with open-ended, creative, active interviews. And, third, by the creation of thick descriptions, interpretations and performance texts generated out of these stories. In addition, Denzin shows readers how to situate an interpretive study in the ethnoscape of daily life, the specifics of how interpretation is done (including performance interpretation), and the existential nature of this research and how it is located in the late postmodern movement. The book concludes with a glossary of terms to help familiarize the reader with the language of interpretive interaction."This text should be required reading for anyone who is thinking about conducting an interview study. For an introduction to post-positivist sociological thinking, as manifested in a well-articulated, credible approach to conducting qualitative inquir