Interpretivist Political Science: Conversations on Methods and Methodologies

Session Submission Type: Virtual Roundtable

Session Description

Interpretivism centers on examining processes of meaning-making and highlights the situatedness of knowledge. This broad and expanding tradition has long offered rich insights across the social sciences and posed challenges to positivist assumptions of objectivity and universality. This roundtable unites interpretive political science scholars of different ranks and from different subfields to explore the evolution of interpretivist political science and its impact on the discipline. Participants address two broad, interrelated questions: 1) What are the key foundations of interpretivist political science? And 2) How does one go about doing interpretivist research? In answering these questions, the roundtable examines how interpretivist ontological and epistemological commitments shape understandings of key questions and concepts in political science.

Participants in the roundtable are contributors to the planned Oxford Handbook of Methodological Pluralism, edited by Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier, Valeria Sinclair-Chapman, and Dino Christenson. Participants examine the ontological assumptions of interpretivist research and explore how these commitments shape the practice of research. Collectively, this roundtable makes the broader argument that political scientists need to be more aware of the ontological assumptions embedded in the methodological choices they make, as these assumptions shape the kinds of knowledge that are produced and not produced in political science research. By being aware of these assumptions and both valuing and understanding the varied methodological approaches and tools that arise from different ontological commitments, political science as a discipline can move toward pluralism and inclusivity.

Sub Unit

• Theme Panel

Chair

• Jessica Soedirgo University of Amsterdam

Presenters

• April Renee Biccum Australian National University

• Rachel George University of Alberta

• Aarie Glas Northern Illinois University

• Lisa Wedeen University of Chicago

• Erica S. Simmons University of Wisconsin, Madison

• Nicholas Rush Smith CUNY-City College