Hermeneutic sociology of knowledge

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The hermeneutic sociology of knowledge is a complex theoretical, methodological and methodological concept of the sociology of knowledge (in development) .

This concept goes back essentially to the work of Hans-Georg Soeffner and was u. a. further developed and differentiated by Ronald Hitzler , Anne Honer , Hubert Knoblauch , Jo Reichertz , Bernt Schnettler and Norbert Schröer . Its aim is to (re) construct the social meaning of every form of interaction (linguistic as well as non-lingual) and all types of interaction products (such as art, religion, entertainment). In the beginning, the name 'social science hermeneutics ' was used more often for this method . The hermeneutic sociology of knowledge developed in this form, on the one hand, through the criticism of the 'metaphysics of structures' of objective hermeneutics (cf. Reichertz 1986) and, on the other hand, through the examination of the socio-phenomenological research tradition (Schütz, Luckmann).

More detailed determination

This perspective is sociological of knowledge because, on this side of constructivism and realism, it examines the big question of how subjects ( actors ) - placed and socialized in historically and socially developed routines and interpretations of the respective field of activity - find these on the one hand and (must) appropriate them on the other to reinterpret them again and again and thus (have to) invent them 'willingly'. The new (constituted according to the relevance of the subject of the action) new interpretations of the socially predefined knowledge are in turn fed back into the social field of action (also as knowledge) (cf. Berger / Luckmann 1977 and Soeffner 1989).

This perspective is hermeneutical because it not only wants to understand everyday interaction and interaction products in a methodically guided interpretation , but also the procedures of scientific interpretation that are used in this understanding. In this way, the hermeneutic sociology of knowledge tries not only to shed light on the acts of everyday interpretation and action, but at the same time to clarify the relationship between science and everyday life and to develop standards of qualitative social research (convincing society) .

The actions of actors only counts as understood if the interpreter is able to put this action in relation to the given and for each type of action relevant frame of reference ( see. Frame analysis ) and in this way for this situation as a ( for the actors) to trace a meaningful (i.e. not necessarily valid!) 'solution' of an action problem.

History of the hermeneutic sociology of knowledge

Anyone who does not know anything about the acts of interpretation and does not impose any accountability on their premises and process structures , interprets - from the point of view of scientific review obligation - simple-minded, i.e. H. based on implicit everyday interpretation routines and plausibility criteria. (Soeffner 1989: 53) Accordingly, “understanding something” naturally also includes “describing and understanding understanding” (ibid.). Interpretative sociology is therefore always a sociology of interpretation. These statements by Soeffner should not only be important components of any sociological hermeneutics, but can also (viewed historically) be the starting point of this research strategy: Whoever wants to understand his observation must also observe his own act of understanding (i.e. his 'everyday life of hermeneutics') . This requirement of application to oneself put the sociological hermeneutics of knowledge from the beginning (and some time before the presence of radical constructivism) in the precarious position of dealing with the constructivist character of observation and interpretation. This situation is precarious because the self-application of the sociology of knowledge to the work of the sociologists of knowledge reveals that the constructs of the scientists differ in terms of content, but not structurally, from the constructs that people make in their normal everyday life and those of the sociologists of knowledge to be observed and interpreted.

Empirical Approach Strategies

The hermeneutic sociology of knowledge always derives its findings from empirical research . All forms of social interaction and all types of cultural products are examined. Since the research strategy is not geared towards the discovery of general laws that explain human behavior, but rather on the (re) construction of the procedures and typification services with which people become familiar and available to a world that is constantly being created, the systematic 'discovery' applies 'Special interest in the new.

In the first research phase the researcher should try to develop an ' abductive posture' (cf. Reichertz 1991).

Non-standardized data, i.e. audiovisual recordings or artifacts from the field of activity , are likely to be the most resistant (cf. Reichertz 1991). Since such data were not produced by the actors taking into account the research question and the survey itself was not shaped by subjective perception schemes, the possibility is quite high that it cannot be brought into line with the stored convictions from the outset.

If the collection of non-standardized data is not possible or makes no sense, then the researcher is obliged to produce data himself: he has to draw up observation protocols and conduct interviews - and he would do well to do so in accordance with scientifically binding standards; consequently, it produces data which in turn are shaped by (scientific) standards.

The following two survey principles must be taken to heart:

  1. The researcher should (only!) Go into the field as naively as possible and collect data with regard to the facts to be examined.
  2. In the initial phase in particular, data collection should be as unstructured as possible. The reason: An early analytical and theoretical penetration of the material and a subsequent targeted collection of data in the initial phase would only lead to the early disarming of the data whetstone, on which theories should later be proven and developed. If the researcher implements these two principles when collecting standardized data, then at least structurally the possibility is opened up that the data might cause him to ponder his old convictions (cf. Reichertz 1997).

To the research logic

An interpretation of data with the help of the sociological knowledge hermeneutics is not limited to the appropriate description of observations or the tracing of subjectively designed and intended meaning, but rather aims at finding the intersubjective meaning of actions. In no case does ' intersubjective ' mean 'true' or 'real', but merely that it is about the meaning that is generated by a (linguistic) action within a certain community of interaction. The meaning of an action is (in part) equated with the anticipated readiness to react, which the action triggers within a community of interaction. The theory of interpretation is connected to the imagination of a typified typical symbol user who is socialized in a certain community of interaction, but not to his concrete content of consciousness. The meaning of symbolic action does not lie in the past, but the meaning of a sign consists instead in the anticipated willingness to react and the reactions that the symbol triggers in the interpreting group and lies in the future.

Methodologically, a sociological hermeneutics follows the following path: In the initial phase, the data protocol is 'openly coded' (Strauss 1994), that is to say: the respective document is analyzed sequentially, extensively and precisely, line by line or even word for word. The decisive factor in this phase is not to introduce a (already known) figure of meaning to the text, but instead to construct as many readings as possible (compatible with the text) with the help of the text. This type of interpretation forces the interpreter to break both the data and his (theoretical) prejudices again and again - which creates a good climate for finding new readings.

If you look for units of meaning in the 'open coding' phase, in the second phase of interpretation you look for more highly aggregated units of meaning and concepts that connect the individual sub-units. In addition, good reasons can now be given as to why which data should be collected again or more precisely. So in the third step you create new data logs, albeit more specifically. In this way, the interpretation controls the data collection, but at the same time, and this is much more important, the interpretation may be falsified, modified and expanded by the subsequently collected data.

At the end you have arrived when a highly aggregated concept, a figure of meaning has been found or constructed, in which all the examined elements can be integrated into a meaningful whole and makes this whole understandable (meaningful) within the framework of a certain community of interaction.

To topicality

Hermeneutic sociology of knowledge is currently mainly taught and practiced at German-speaking universities (Konstanz, Dortmund, Essen, Wuppertal, Vechta, St. Gallen, Vienna, Zurich). However, a number of German, Swiss and Austrian researchers from different social science disciplines explicitly refer to this research strategy. Soeffner (1989) and Soeffner / Hitzler (1994) are regarded as a fundamental introduction to the method of hermeneutic sociology of knowledge. In addition, Schröer (1994) is a volume in which the methodology is presented and discussed, while Hitzler / Reichertz / Schröer (1999) essentially discusses the theory and methodology. A first systematic description of the hermeneutic sociology of knowledge is provided by Schröer in 1997, a current version can be found in Reichertz 2007a and b. With Reichertz (1991) and Knoblauch (1995) two methodologically founded research programs were presented. In his research program on the sociology of knowledge discourse analysis, Keller (2005) linked assumptions of the hermeneutic sociology of knowledge with traditions of discourse research. Exemplary case analyzes of the hermeneutic sociology of knowledge can be found in Soeffner (1992).

Police hermeneutic research

Hermeneutic police research is special police research that argues from the perspective of hermeneutic sociology of knowledge. Its aim is to describe, understand and explain the social work of the police. In this form, the research and argumentation perspective of hermeneutic police research is new for police sociology.

The concept is largely based on the work of Jo Reichertz and Norbert Schröer.

application

There are empirical results that have been achieved with research by Jo Reichertz, Norbert Schröer and Ute Donk corresponding to the concept of hermeneutic police research . These results relate, among other things, to the difference between the legal basis and practice of the police. Another topic examined is the communication between German officials and Turkish migrants in interrogation situations. Another example of the application of hermeneutic police research is a study on police work in Ghana carried out at the Institute for Ethnology and African Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and published in 2009 by Bianca Volk.

literature

  • Peter L. Berger , Thomas Luckmann : The social construction of reality . A theory of the sociology of knowledge . 5th edition. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1977, ISBN 3-10-807101-7 , ( Conditio humana ).
  • Ronald Hitzler , Anne Honer (ed.): Social science hermeneutics. A Einführungk . Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1997, ISBN 3-8100-1455-9 , ( Uni-Taschenbücher - Sozialwissenschaften 1885).
  • Ronald Hitzler, Jo Reichertz , Norbert Schröer (eds.): Hermeneutische Wissenssoziologie. Viewpoints on the theory of interpretation . UVK - Universitäts-Verlag, Konstanz 1999, ISBN 3-87940-671-5 .
  • Reiner Keller : Knowledge-sociological discourse analysis. Foundation of a research program . VS - Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-531-14428-6 , (2nd edition: ibid. 2008, ISBN 978-3-531-15572-2 ).
  • Hubert Knoblauch : communication culture. The communicative construction of cultural contexts . de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 1995, ISBN 3-11-014773-4 , ( Materiale Soziologie - TB 5), urn : nbn: de: 0168-ssoar-9139 .
  • Jo Reichertz: Problems of Qualitative Social Research. On the history of the development of objective hermeneutics . Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-593-33612-X , ( Campus Research 485).
  • Jo Reichertz: Educational work. Police officers and field researchers at work . Enke, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-432-99871-6 , ( Enke social sciences ).
  • Jo Reichertz: Plea for the end of a methodology debate to the last resort . In: Tilmann Sutter (Ed.): Understanding observation - observing understanding. Perspectives of a constructivist hermeneutics . Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1997, ISBN 3-531-12984-8 , pp. 98-133.
  • Jo Reichertz: Hermeneutic sociology of knowledge in market research . In: Renate Bubner, Hartmut H. Holzmüller (ed.): Qualitative market research. Concepts - Methods - Analyzes . Gabler, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-8349-0229-0 , pp. 111-127.
  • Jo Reichertz: Hermeneutic Sociology of Knowledge . In: Rainer Schützeichel (Hrsg.): Handbuch Wissenssoziologie und Wissensforschung . UVK - Universitäts-Verlag, Konstanz 2007, ISBN 978-3-89669-551-2 , ( Experience - Knowledge - Imagination 15), pp. 171–180.
  • Reichertz, Jo & Norbert Schröer (eds.): Hermeneutic police research. Leske and Budrich, Opladen 2003.
  • Hans-Georg Soeffner : Interpretation of everyday life - The everyday of interpretation. For the scientific conception of a social science hermeneutics . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1989, ISBN 3-518-28385-5 .
  • Hans-Georg Soeffner: Interpretation of everyday life - the everyday of interpretation . Volume 2: The order of rituals . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 3-518-28593-9 , ( Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch Wissenschaft 993).
  • Hans-Georg Soeffner, Ronald Hitzler: Hermeneutics as an attitude and an action . In: Norbert Schröer (Ed.): Interpretative Social Research. On the way to a hermeneutic sociology of knowledge . Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1994, ISBN 3-531-12504-4 , pp. 28-55.
  • Norbert Schröer (Ed.): Interpretative social research. On the way to a hermeneutic sociology of knowledge . Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1994, ISBN 3-531-12504-4 .
  • Norbert Schröer: Hermeneutics of the sociology of knowledge . In: Ronald Hitzler, Anne Honer (eds.): Sociological Hermeneutics. A Einführungk . Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1997, ISBN 3-8100-1455-9 , ( Uni-Taschenbücher - Sozialwissenschaften 1885), pp. 109–132.
  • Anselm Strauss : Fundamentals of Qualitative Social Research. Data analysis and theory building in empirical and sociological research . Fink, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-7705-2910-3 , ( Uni-Taschenbücher - Soziologie 1776).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Reichertz & Schröer 2003
  2. ↑ Anja Mensching 2003: Convincing doubts instead of dubious convictions - an understanding look at the hermeneutic police research. Review essay: Jo Reichertz & Norbert Schröer (eds.) (2003): Hermeneutische Polizeiforschung. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, Volume 4, No. 3. Accessed October 21, 2010
  3. ↑ Bianca Volk 2009: "Talking about Marriage ...". Policing in Upper West, Ghana. (PDF; 836 kB) Institute for Ethnology and African Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Working Papers No. 102, p. 9, accessed on October 21, 2010