Interpretive Interactionism

by Norman K. Denzin

• ISBN13: 9780761915140
• ISBN10: 0761915141
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-10-03
• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc

Summary

Praise for the First Edition:'Interpretive Interactionism argues strongly for a new approach to qualitative research methods. Writing primarily for established practitioners and advanced graduate students, Denzin seeks to fuse influences of symbolic interactionist, hermeneutical, feminist, post-modern and critical-biographical thought into his personal approach to research, which he calls interpretive interactionism' - Contemporary SociologyThe expanded and updated Second Edition includes: information on how interpretive work can be used to further the workings of a free, democratic society; a new chapter on interpretive criteria in the Seventh moment; a re-examination of the key notion of thick description, in light of the narrative and performance turns in the social sciences; new material on multisited ethnographies, the politics of place, the ethnoscapes of group life; links made with recent qualitative turns, from literary ethnography to feminist, cultural, critical race, interpretive and Foucauldian studies; and new coverage of narratives and sacred places and new writing forms (layered texts, poetry, short stories).

Author Biography

Norman K. Denzin is Distinguished Professor of Communications, College of Communications Scholar, and Research Professor of Communications, Sociology and Humanities at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Interpretive Criteria in the Seventh Moment	1	(25)
When to Use the Interpretive Approach	1	(2)
The Researcher and the Social World	3	(1)
Interpretive Criteria in the Seventh Moment	4	(8)
Performing Ethnography	12	(3)
The Performance Turn	15	(5)
Red Lodge, Montana: Experiences and Performances	20	(4)
Performing Montana	24	(1)
Notes	24	(2)
The Interpretive Point of View	26	(30)
Performing Racial Memories	26	(6)
Personal Biography	32	(1)
The Interpretive Heritage	33	(1)
Opening Up the World for Interpretation	34	(1)
The Subject's Experiences and the Epiphany	34	(5)
What Is Interpretive Interactionism?	39	(5)
Interpretation and Science	44	(5)
History, Power, Emotion, and Knowledge	49	(2)
The Criteria of Interpretation	51	(3)
The Agenda	54	(1)
Conclusion	55	(1)
Notes	55	(1)
Securing Biographical Experience	56	(14)
Exemplars	56	(2)
Overview	58	(1)
Narrative's Moment	58	(2)
Selves, Narratives, and Sacred Places	60	(7)
Interpreting the Biographical	67	(1)
Conclusion	68	(2)
The Interpretive Process	70	(15)
The Steps to Interpretation	70	(10)
Evaluating Interpretive Materials	80	(3)
Conclusion	83	(2)
Situating Interpretation	85	(13)
Time, History, and Mapping	85	(6)
Learning the Language and Its Meanings	91	(5)
Researcher as Newcomer and the Knowing Subject	96	(1)
Conclusion	97	(1)
Thick Description	98	(21)
A Double Crisis	98	(1)
Thick Description as Performative Writing	99	(1)
Thick Description-as-Inscription	100	(2)
Thin Description-as-Inscription	102	(4)
Types of Thick Description-as-Inscription	106	(8)
Good and Bad Thick Description	114	(2)
Description, Inscription, and Interpretation	116	(2)
Conclusion	118	(1)
Note	118	(1)
Doing Interpretation	119	(24)
The Importance of Interpretation and Understanding	120	(1)
Exemplars of Interpretation	120	(3)
What Interpretation Does	123	(3)
Types of Interpretation and Examplers	126	(9)
Performing and Representing Interpretation	135	(2)
Understanding	137	(5)
Conclusion	142	(1)
Conclusion: On Interpretive Interactionism	143	(14)
Interpretation	143	(2)
Biographical Experience	145	(2)
Reading and Writing Interpretation	147	(6)
Fiction and Interpretation	153	(1)
Interpretive Interactionism in the Postmodern Period	154	(3)
Glossary	157	(6)
References	163	(12)
Name Index	175	(4)
Subject Index	179	(8)
About the Author	187