![]() In Elucidating Social Science Concepts: An Interpretivist Guide, Frederic Schaffer makes a crucial intervention. Lahra Smith, Georgetown University, in Qualitative and Multi-Method Research ![]() It would be a serious mistake for this guide to be read only by interpretivists. With this volume, Schaffer’s real contribution is the stimulating deployment of language, example and imagery to initiate a process of political imagination that is quite needed in political days such as these we face…. Dow, University of Texas-Dallas, in European Political Science In Elucidating Social Science Concepts’s second role, Schaffer offers his own trenchant intervention into the growing debates over the nature of concepts, their role within linguistic and social life, and their value to social scientists.ĭouglas C. ![]() This is no standard introductory text, however. Joe Soss, University of Minnesota, in European Political Scienceįor the reader new to the study of political vocabulary, or seeking to incorporate concept analysis into one’s own research agenda, there is no better introduction than Elucidating Social Science Concepts. I cannot remember the last time I read a book that had such a fundamental effect on my understanding of what it means to do interpretive research – and what defines its distinctive contributions to social science. In this slender volume, Frederic Schaffer elaborates a powerful account of what it might mean to take an interpretive approach to concepts in social science research…. Written in a plain-speaking and practical way, the book speaks to more than concepts: although interpretivists will be the main consumers, noninterpretivists will be curious to see the contents.Įlucidating Social Science Concepts should be celebrated as a landmark achievement in the field. Now we know what one extremely clear-thinking member of the tradition thinks interpretivism ought to mean with respect to social science concepts. By illustrating his arguments with lively analyses of such concepts as "person," "family," and "democracy," Schaffer shows rather than tells, making the book both highly readable and an essential guide for social science research.Ī century after Dilthey, we are familiar with what interpretivists are opposed to. It also explores the uses to which elucidation can be put and the moral dilemmas that attend such uses. After an initial chapter explaining what elucidation is and how it differs from reconstruction, the book lays out practical elucidative strategies-grounding, locating, and exposing-that help situate concepts in particular language games, times and tongues, and structures of power. It is intended to produce a clear view of both types of language, the relationship between them, and the practices of life and power that they evoke and sustain. ![]() Against the positivist project of concept "reconstruction"-the formulation of a technical, purportedly neutral vocabulary for measuring, comparing, and generalizing-Schaffer adopts an interpretivist approach that he calls "elucidation." Elucidation includes both a reflexive examination of social science technical language and an investigation into the language of daily life. This book is a guide to working with them. For both formats the functionality available will depend on how you access the ebook (via Bookshelf Online in your browser or via the Bookshelf app on your PC or mobile device).Ĭoncepts have always been foundational to the social science enterprise. Where the content of the eBook requires a specific layout, or contains maths or other special characters, the eBook will be available in PDF (PBK) format, which cannot be reflowed. Most VitalSource eBooks are available in a reflowable EPUB format which allows you to resize text to suit you and enables other accessibility features. System requirements for Bookshelf for PC, Mac, IOS and Android etc.Bookshelf Online Browser version support ».Learn More about VitalSource Bookshelf ».Offline Computer – Download Bookshelf software to your desktop so you can view your eBooks with or without Internet access.Mobile/eReaders – Download the Bookshelf mobile app at or from the iTunes or Android store to access your eBooks from your mobile device or eReader.The free VitalSource Bookshelf® application allows you to access to your eBooks whenever and wherever you choose. Routledge & CRC Press eBooks are available through VitalSource.
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