Task Force on Engaged Methodological Pluralism Mini-Conference: Understanding the Role of Methodologies

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Part of Mini-Conference

• Task Force for Engaged Methodological Pluralism Mini-Conference

Session Description

Interpretivism centers on examining processes of meaning-making and highlights the situatedness of knowledge. This broad, pluralistic, 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 areas of interpretivist political science and reflect on its impact on the discipline. Participants in the roundtable are contributors to the Oxford Handbook of Methodological Pluralism, edited by Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier, Valeria Sinclair-Chapman, and Dino Christenson. The roundtable will examine the ontological assumptions of interpretivist research, explore how these commitments shape the practice of research, and survey some of the rich contributions of interpretive approaches to the discipline of political science. The latter includes reflecting on digital interpretivist approaches, the diversity of comparison in the discipline, dynamics of discourse analysis, and reflexivity in the production of knowledge. 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

• Panels

Chair

• Aarie Glas Northern Illinois University

Presenters

• Lisa Wedeen University of Chicago

• April Renee Biccum Australian National University

• Nicholas Rush Smith CUNY-City College

• Erica S. Simmons University of Wisconsin, Madison