Interpretive Interactionism

Norman K. Denzin was Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Communications, College of Communications Scholar, and Research Professor of Communications, Sociology, and Humanities at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. One of the world’s foremost authorities on qualitative research and cultural criticism, he was the author or editor of more than 30 books, including The Qualitative Manifesto; Qualitative Inquiry Under Fire; Reading Race; Interpretive Ethnography; The Cinematic Society; The Alcoholic Self; and a trilogy on the American West. He was past editor of The Sociological Quarterly, co-editor of six editions of the landmark SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research, co-editor (with Michael D. Giardina) of 18 books on qualitative inquiry, co-editor (with Yvonna S. Lincoln and Michael D. Giardina) of the methods journal Qualitative Inquiry, founding editor of Cultural Studies-Critical Methodologies and International Review of Qualitative Research, editor of four book series, and founding director of the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry.

• Preface1. Interpretive Criteria in the Seventh MomentInterpretive Criteria in the Seventh MomentThe Performance TurnExperiences and PerformancesPerforming MontanaConclusions2. The Interpretive Point of ViewPerforming Racial MemoriesPersonal BiographyThe Interpretive HeritageOpening Up the World for InterpretationWhat Is Interpretive Interactionism?Interpretation and ScienceHistory, Power, Emotion, and KnowledgeThe Criteria of InterpretationThe AgendaConclusions3. Securing Biographical ExperienceExemplarsOverviewNarrative′s MomentSelves, Narratives and Sacred PlacesInterpreting and BiographicalConclusions4. The Interpretive Process The Steps to InterpretationFraming the Research QuestionDeconstructionCaptureBracketingConstructionContextualizingEvaluating Interpretive MaterialsConclusions5. Situating InterpretationTime, History, and MappingLearning the Language and Its MeaningsResearcher as Newcomer and Knowing SubjectConclusions6. Thick DescriptionA Double CrisisThick Description as Performative WritingExamples of Thick Description-as-InscriptionThin Description-as-InscriptionGood and Bad Thick DescriptionConclusions7. Doing InterpretationExemplars of InterpretationWhat Interpretation DoesTypes of Interpretation and ExemplarsPerforming and Representing InterpretationUnderstandingConclusions 8. Conclusion: On Interpretive InteractionismInterpretationBiographical ExperienceReading and Writing ExperienceFiction and InterpretationInterpretive Interactionism in the Postmodern PeriodGlossary of Terms ReferencesIndex

'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 Sociology