Dr. Werner Binder / doc. PhDr. Csaba Szaló, Ph.D. Spring 2020
Advanced Methods of Interpretation in Cultural Sociology
Title Lecture (soc 575) Seminar (soc 575a)
Course
description
The lecture gives the students an overview over
theories, methods and techniques of
interpretation important for qualitative social
research and cultural sociology. The first half deals
with the fundamentals of interpretation, whereas
the second half is devoted to different areas of
research and specific methodological instruments.
The lecture concludes with a written test, which
consists of a question-and-answer part as well as
an interpretation exercise as practical part.
The bi-weekly seminar accompanies the
lecture with additional readings and
interpretation exercises. Students should
bring empirical material for discussion and
interpretation from their own research
projects. If there is no student material for
a session, we will discuss fundamental texts
and case studies instead. At the end of the
course, students have to work on and
submit an interpretation essay as final
paper, either as individual or team work.
Course
objectives
Upon successful completion of the course students
should have a broad knowledge in methodology
and methods of interpretation used in cultural
sociology and related fields. Students should be
able to deliver sociological interpretations of
images and texts, including interviews and media
discourses.
Upon successful completion of the seminar
students should have a broader knowledge
and deeper understanding of methods of
interpretation in cultural sociology and
related fields. Furthermore, students will
have gathered practical experiences with
the interpretation of images and texts,
which is important with regard to future
qualitative research projects (such as the
MA thesis).
Regular attendance and written test based on the
lecture and the obligatory readings.
Registration and attendance of the lecture
(soc 775), participation in class and the
submission of a successful final paper.
Assessment
Methods
1. Written test (90%): 90-100 = A, 80-89 = B, 70-79
= C, 60-69 = D, 50-59 = E, 0-49 = F
2. Participation in the lecture, for example trough
comments and questions (10%)
1. Participation in class (40%)
2. Interpretation essay (60%)
ECTS points 10 5
I What is Interpretation? (18.2)
Required
Readings
Geertz, Clifford (2006): “Thick Description: Towards an Interpretative Theory of Culture”. In: The
Interpretation of Cultures. Selected Essays. New York: Basic Books, 3-30.
Reed, Isaac (2011): “Knowledge”. In: Interpretation and Social Knowledge. On the Use of Theory in
the Human Sciences. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 15-38.
Additional
Readings
Eco, Umberto: (1992): Interpretation and Overinterpretation. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Taylor, Charles (1985): “Interpretation and the Sciences of Man”. In: Philosophical Papers 2.
Philosophy and the Human Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 15-57.
Weber, Max (1978): Economy and Society. Outline of an Interpretative Sociology. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 3-26.
II On Methodology (25.2) Seminar (26.2)
Required
Readings
Thornberg, Robert & Kathy Charmaz (2014):
“Grounded Theory and Theoretical Coding”. In:
Flick, Uwe (ed.), The SAGE Handbook of
Qualitative Data Analysis. London; Thousand
Oaks: Sage, 153-169.
Timmermans, Stefan & Iddo Tavory (2012):
“Theory Construction in Qualitative Research
from Grounded Theory to Abductive Analysis”.
In: Sociological Theory 30(3), 167-186.
Reed, Isaac (2007): “Why Salem Made Sense.
Culture, Gender, and the Puritan Persecution of
Witchcraft”. In: Cultural Sociology 1(2), 209-234.
Soeffner, Hans-Georg (1997): “Style and
Stylization. Punk, or the Superelevation of
Everyday Life”. In: The Order of Rituals. The
Interpretation of Everyday Life. New Brunswick;
London: Transaction Publishers, 49-69.
Additional
Readings
Abbott, Andrew (2004): Methods of Discovery. Heuristics for the Social Sciences. New York; London:
Norton.
Glaser, Barney G. & Anselm L. Strauss (2006): The Discovery of Grounded Theory. Strategies for
Qualitative Research. New Brunswick; London: Aldine Transaction.
Peirce, Charles Sanders (1998): “Pragmatism as the Logic of Abduction”. In: The Essential Peirce.
Selected Philosophical Writings (1893 - 1913). Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 226-241.
Weber, Max (1949): “‘Objectivity’ in Social Sciences and Social Policy”. In: The Methodology of Social
Sciences. Glencoe: Free Press, 49-112.
III Understanding: Phenomenological Hermeneutics (3.3) / C. Szaló
Required
Readings
Ricoeur, Paul (2007): “The Task of Hermeneutics”. In: From Text to Action. Essays in Hermeneutics
II. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 53-74.
Soeffner, Hans-Georg (2004): “Social Scientific Hermeneutics”. In: Steinke, Ines, Ernst von Kardoff &
Uwe Flick (eds.): A Companion to Qualitative Research. London: Sage, 95-100.
Additional
Readings
Palmer, Richard E. 1973. “Phenomenology as Foundation for a Post-Modern Philosophy of Literary
Interpretation.” Cultural Hermeneutics 1 (1):207–223.
Dilthey, Wilhelm (1990): “The Human Studies”. In: Jeffrey C. Alexander & Steven Seidman (eds.):
Culture and Society. Contemporary Debates. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 31-38.
Gadamer, Hans-Georg (2006): Truth and Method. New York: Continuum.
Case
Studies
Weber, Max (2001): The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. London, New York: Routledge.
Geertz, Clifford (2006): “Deep Play. Notes on the Balinese Cockfight”. In: The Interpretation of
Cultures. Selected Essays. New York: Basic Books, 412-453.
IV Critical Hermeneutics (10.3) / C. Szaló Seminar (11.3)
Required
Readings
Ricoeur, Paul (2007): “Hermeneutics and the Critique of Ideology” In:
From Text to Action. Essays in Hermeneutics II. Evanston: Northwestern
University Press, 270-307.
Reed, Isaac (2011): “Utopia”. In: Interpretation and Social Knowledge. On
the Use of Theory in the Human Sciences. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 67-88.
Interpretation session
with student material.
Additional
Readings
Habermas, Jürgen (1989): The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. An Inquiry into a
Category of Bourgeois Society. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Ricoeur, Paul (1970): Freud and Philosophy. An Essay on Interpretation. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 20-36.
Ricoeur, Paul (1973): “The Model of the Text. Meaningful Action Considered as a Text”. In: New
Literary History 5(1), 91-117.
V Interpretive Communities (17.3) / C. Szaló
Required
Readings
Fish, Stanley E. (1976). “Interpreting the ‘Variorum.’” Critical Inquiry 2 (3):465–85.
Reed, Isaac (2011): “Interpretation”. In: Interpretation and Social Knowledge. On the Use of Theory
in the Human Sciences. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 89-122.
Additional
Readings
Fish, Stanley E. (1980): Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 338-355.
VI Structuralism and Poststructuralism (24.3) Seminar (25.3)
Required
Readings
Saussure, Ferdinand de (2011): Course in General Linguistics. New York:
Columbia University Press, 111-122.
Hawkes, Terence (2003): Structuralism and Semiotics. London; New York:
Routledge. 1-43.
Interpretation session
with student material.
Additional
Readings
Lévi-Strauss, Claude (1974): “Structural Analysis in Linguistics and Anthropology”. In: Structural
Anthropology. New York: Basic Books, 31-51.
Frank, Manfred (1989): What is Neostructuralism? Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Derrida, Jacques (2002): “Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences”. In:
Writing and Difference. London; New York: Routledge, 351-370.
Case
Studies
Lévi-Strauss, Claude (1971): The Elementary Structures of Kinship. Boston: Beacon Press.
Lévi-Strauss, Claude (1961): Tristes Tropiques. New York: Kriterion, 160-180.
Barthes, Roland (1990): The Fashion System. Berkeley: University of California.
Barthes, Roland (1991): Mythologies. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
Smith, Philip (1991): “Codes and Conflict. Toward a Theory of War as a Ritual”. In: Theory and Society
20(1), 103-138.
Reading Week
VII Structural Hermeneutics I (7.4) Seminar (8.4)
Required
Readings
Alexander, Jeffrey C. & Philip Smith (2003): “The Strong Program in Cultural
Sociology. Elements of a Structural Hermeneutics”. In: The Meanings of
Social Life. A Cultural Sociology, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 11-26.
Alexander, Jeffrey C. & Philip Smith (2003): „The Discourse of American
Civil Society“. In: Alexander, Jeffrey C. (ed.), The Meanings of Social Life. A
Cultural Sociology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 121-154.
Interpretation session
with student material.
Additional
Readings
Emirbayer, Mustafa (2004): “The Alexander School of Cultural Sociology”. In: Thesis Eleven 79(1), 5-
15.
Alexander, Jeffrey C. & Philip Smith (2010): “The Strong Program. Origins, Achievements,
Prospects”. In: John R. Hall, Laura Grindstaff & Ming-Cheng Lo (eds.): Handbook of Cultural
Sociology. London; New York: Routledge, 13-24.
Case
Studies
Alexander, Jeffrey C. (1988): “Culture and Political Crisis. ‘Watergate’ and Durkheimian Sociology”.
In: Alexander, Jeffrey C. (ed.), Durkheimian Sociology. Cultural Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 187-224.
Alexander, Jeffrey C. (2010): The Performance of Politics. Obama's Victory and the Democratic
Struggle for Power. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Smith, Philip (2005): Why War? The Cultural Logic of Iraq, the Gulf War, and Suez. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Smith, Philip (2008): Punishment and Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
VIII Structural Hermeneutics II (14.4)
Required
Readings
Mannheim, Karl (1968): “On the Interpretation of ‘Weltanschauung’” [excerpt]. In: Essays on the
Sociology of Knowledge. London: Routledge, 43-63.
Bohnsack, Rainer (2014): “Documentary Method”. In: Flick, Uwe (ed.), The SAGE Handbook of
Qualitative Data Analysis. London; Thousand Oaks: Sage, 217-233.
Wernet, Andreas (2014): “Objective Hermeneutics”. In: Flick, Uwe (ed.), The SAGE Handbook of
Qualitative Data Analysis. London; Thousand Oaks: Sage, 234-246.
Additional
Readings
Mannheim, Karl (1968): “On the Interpretation of ‘Weltanschauung’”. In: Essays on the Sociology of
Knowledge. London: Routledge, 33-83.
Oevermann, Ulrich, Allert Tilman, Elisabeth Konau & Jürgen Krambeck (1987): “Structures of
Meaning and Objective Hermeneutics”. In: Meja, Volker & Dieter Misgeld (eds.): Modern German
Sociology. European Perspectives. New York: Columbia University Press, 436-447.
Titscher, Stefan, Michael Meyer, Ruth Wodak & Eva Vetter (2003): Methods of Text and Discourse
Analysis. London; Thousand Oaks: Sage, 198-212.
Case
Studies
Mannheim, Karl (1986): Conservatism. A Contribution to the Sociology of Knowledge. London:
Routledge.
Mann, Stefan (2007): “Understanding Farm Succession by the Objective Hermeneutics Method”. In:
Sociologia Ruralis 47(4), 369-383.
IX Interpretation of Artifacts and Practices (21.4) Seminar (22.4)
Required
Readings
Gell, Alfred (1998): Art and Agency. An Anthropological Theory. Oxford:
Clarendon, 12-50.
Latour, Bruno (1991): “The Berlin Key or How to Do Words with Things”.
In: Graves-Brown, Paul (ed.), Matter, Materiality and Modern Culture.
London: Routledge, 10-21.
Interpretation session
with student material.
Additional
Readings
Keane, Webb (2005): “Signs Are not the Garb of Meaning. On the Social Analysis of Material Things”.
In: Miller, Daniel (ed.), Materiality. Durham; London: Duke University Press, 182-205.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1990): The Logic of Practice. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Reckwitz, Andreas (2002): “Toward a Theory of Social Practices. A Development in Culturalist
Theorizing”. In: European Journal of Social Theory 5(2), 243-265.
Reckwitz, Andreas (2002): “The Status of the ‘Material’ in Theories of Culture: From ‘Social
Structure” to “Artefacts’”. In: Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 32(2), 195-217.
Additional
Material
Žižek, Slavoj (2004): “Knee-Deep”, London Review of Books, September 2.
Peach, Eric Crassoi (2012): “Žižek on Toilets and the Christchurch Rebuild”, Project Freerange,
http://www.projectfreerange.com/zizek-on-toilets-and-the-christchurch-rebuild/
X Interpretation of Pictures (30.4)
Required
Readings
Panofsky, Erwin (1955): Meaning in the Visual Arts. Papers in and on Art
History. Garden City: Doubleday, 26-54.
Binder, Werner & Bernadette N. Jaworsky (2018): „Refugees as Icons:
Culture and Iconic Representation“. In: Sociology Compass 12(3).
Foucault, Michel (1973): “Las Meninas”. In: The Order of Things.
Archaeology of the Human Sciences. New York: Vintage Books, 3-18.
Interpretation session
in the Moravian
Gallery with S. Darrow
Additional
Readings
Bartmanski, Dominik (2012): “The Word/Image Dualism Revisited. Towards an Iconic Conception of
Visual Culture”. In: Journal of Sociology.
Bohnsack, Ralf (2010): “The Interpretation of Pictures and the Documentary Method”. In: Bohnsack,
Ralf et al. (eds.): Qualitative Analysis and Documentary Method in International Educational
Research. Opladen: Budrich, 267-309.
Emmison, Michael & Philip Smith (2000): Researching the Visual. Images, Objects, Context and
Interactions in Social and Cultural Inquiry. London: Sage.
Przyborski, Aglaja & Thomas Slunecko (2012): “Learning to Think Iconically in the Human and Social
Sciences: Iconic Standards of Understanding as a Pivotal Challenge for Method Development”. In:
Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science 46(1), 39-56.
Bourdieu, Pierre (2005/1967): “Postface to Erwin Panofsky, Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism”.
In: Holsinger, Bruce, The Premodern Condition. Medievalism and the Making of Theory. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 221-242.
Debate on
“Las
Meninas”
Searle, John R. (1980): ““Las Meninas” and the Paradoxes of Pictorial Representation”. In: Critical
Inquiry 6(3), 477-488.
Snyder, Joel (1985): ““Las Meninas” and the Mirror of the Prince”. In: Critical Inquiry 11(4), 539-572.
Schmitter, Amy M. (1996): “Picturing Power: Representation and Las Meninas”. In: The Journal of
Aesthetics and Art Criticism 54(3), 255-268.
XI Texts, Narratives, Interviews (5.5) Seminar (6.5)
Required
Reading
Nohl, Arnd-Michael (2010): “Narrative Interview and Documentary
Interpretation”. In: Bohnsack et al. (eds.): Qualitative Analysis and
Documentary Method in International Educational Research. Opladen:
Budrich, 195-217.
Pugh, Allison J. (2013): “What Good are Interviews for Thinking about
Culture? Demystifying Interpretative Analysis”. In: American Journal of
Cultural Sociology 1(1), 42-68.
Smith, Philip (2005): Why War? The Cultural Logic of Iraq, the Gulf War,
and Suez. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 18-27.
Interpretation session
with student material.
Additional
Readings
Campbell, Joseph (2004): The Hero of a Thousand Faces. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Frye, Northrop (2000): Anatomy of Criticism. Four Essays. Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University
Press.
Propp, Vladimir (1984): Theory and History of Folklore. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Smith, Philip (2005): Why War? The Cultural Logic of Iraq, the Gulf War, and Suez. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Swidler, Ann (2005): Talk of Love. How Culture Matters. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
White, Hayden V. (1973): Metahistory. The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe.
Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
Wuthnow, Robert (1988): “Religious Discourse as Public Rhetoric”. In: Communication Research
15(3), 318-338.
Debate on
Interviews
Vaisey, Stephen (2014): “Is Interviewing Compatible with the Dual-process Model of Culture?” In:
American Journal of Cultural Sociology 2(1), 150-158.
Pugh, Allison J. (2014): “The Divining Rod of Talk. Emotions, Contradictions and the Limits of
Research”. In: American Journal of Cultural Sociology 2(1), 159-163.
XII Discourse Analysis (14.5)
Required
Readings
Laclau, Ernesto (1993): “Discourse”. In: Robert E. Goodin (ed.): A Companion to Contemporary
Political Philosophy, Oxford: Blackwell, 431-437.
Fairclough, Norman (1989): “Discourse as Social Practice”. In: Language and Power. Harlow; New
York: Longman, 17-42.
Foucault, Michel (1971): “Orders of Discourse”. In: Social Science Information 10(2), 7-30.
Additional
Readings
Fairclough, Norman (2000): New Labour, New Language. London; New York: Routledge.
Foucault, Michel (1973): The Order of Things. An Archaeology of the Human Sciences. New York:
Vintage Books.
Lakoff, George (2006): Moral Politics. How Liberals and Conservatives Think. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
Wagner-Pacifici, Robin Erica (1986): The Moro Morality Play. Terrorism as Social Drama. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Alexander, Jeffrey C. (2010): The Performance of Politics. Obama’s Victory and the Democratic
Struggle for Power. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Smith, Philip & Nicolas Howe (2015): Climate Change as Social Drama. Cambridge; New York:
Cambridge University Press.
XIII Final Exam (21.5)
5 out of 10 questions regarding theories and methods
discussed in the lecture or the required readings
1 out of 3 interpretative exercises
Interpretative essay of 8-10 pages (more
for team work)
Deadline: June 15, 2020
Additional Literature
Alexander, Jeffrey C. & Steven Seidman (1990, ed.): Culture and Society. Contemporary Debates. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Alexander, Jeffrey C. (2003): The Meanings of Social Life. A Cultural Sociology. Oxford; New York: Oxford University
Press.
Alexander, Jeffrey C., Bernhard Giesen & Jason L. Mast (2006, eds.): Social Performance. Symbolic Action, Cultural
Pragmatics, and Ritual. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Alexander, Jeffrey C., Dominik Bartmanski & Bernhard Giesen (2012, eds.): Iconic Power. Materiality and Meaning
in Social Life. New York; Houndmills: Palgrave.
Andersen, Niels Åkerstrøm (2003): Discursive Analytical Strategies. Understanding Foucault, Koselleck, Laclau,
Luhmann. Bristol: The Policy Press.
Back, Les, Andy Bennett, Laura Desfor Edles, Margaret Gibson, David Inglis, Ronald Jacobs & Ian Woodward
(2012): Cultural Sociology. An Introduction. Malden; Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.
Binder, Werner (2018): "The semiotics of social life". In: American Journal of Cultural Sociology 6(2), 401-416.
Bohnsack, Ralf, Nicolle Pfaff & Wivian Weller (2010, eds.): Qualitative Analysis and Documentary Method in
International Educational Research. Opladen: Budrich.
Edles, Laura Desfor (2002): Cultural Sociology in Practice. Malden; Oxford: Blackwell.
Fairclough, Norman (2003): Analyzing Discourse. Textual Analysis for Social Research. London; New York:
Routledge.
Fairclough, Norman & Isabela Fairclough (2012): Political Discourse Analysis. A Method for Advanced Students.
London; New York: Routledge.
Flick, Uwe (2009): An Introduction to Qualitative Research. London; Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Flick, Uwe (2014, ed.): The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Data Analysis. London; Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Giddens, Anthony (1993): New Rules of Sociological Method. A Positive Critique of Interpretative Sociologies.
Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Michel, Johann (2019): Homo Interpretans. London; New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
Raud, Rein (2016): Meaning in Action. Outline of an Integral Theory of Culture. Cambridge; Malden: Polity.
Ricoeur, Paul (1976): Interpretation Theory. Discourse and the Surplus of Meaning. Fort Worth: Texas Christian
University Press.
Riessman, Catherine Kohler (2008): Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences. London: Sage.
Smith, Philip (1998, ed.): The New American Cultural Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Smith, Philip & Alexander Riley (2009): Cultural Theory. An Introduction. Malden: Blackwell.
Steinke, Ines, Ernst von Kardoff & Uwe Flick (2004, eds.): A Companion to Qualitative Research. London: Sage.