Methods of Interpretive Sociology

by Matthew David (editor)

Should cultural meaning be understood in terms of psychological motivations and intentions, or in terms of collective codes and belief systems? The development of an interpretive or verstehen approach to understanding social life draws itself in distinction from approaches that seek causal explanation in terms of variables external to the beliefs of social actors, but this collection attempts to disrupt the comfortable polarities between macro and micro, structure and agency, explanation and description that dog sociology and through which the term interpretive has been quarantined.

1672 pages, Hardcover

First published October 8, 2010

About the author

Matthew David is an Associate Professsor in Applied Social Science at Durham University, and has undertaken research in the areas of new social movements, online data-services in higher education, online training in rural areas and forms of free online music sharing. He is author of Science in Society (Palgrave 2005) and Peer to Peer and the Music Industry (Sage 2010), and co-author of Social Research (Sage 2004 and 2011).