Reinventing Evidence in Social Inquiry

Reinventing Evidence in Social Inquiry

Cu lt u r a l S ociolog y Series Editors: Je f f r e y C. A le x a nd e r, R on Ey e r m a n, D a v id I n g l i s, a nd Ph i l ip Sm it h Cultural sociology is widely acknowledged as one of the most vibrant areas of inquiry in the social sciences across the world today. The Palgrave Macmillan Series in Cultural Sociology is dedicated to the proposition that deep meanings make a profound difference in social life. Culture is not simply the glue that holds society together, a crutch for the weak, or a mystifying ideology that conceals power. Nor is it just practical knowledge, dry schemas, or knowhow. The series demonstrates how shared and circulating patterns of meaning actively and inescapably penetrate the social. Through codes and myths, narratives and icons, rituals and representations, these culture structures drive human action, inspire social movements, direct and build institutions, and so come to shape history. The series takes its lead from the cultural turn in the humanities, but insists on rigorous social science methods and aims at empirical explanations. Contributions engage in thick interpretations but also account for behavioral outcomes. They develop cultural theory but also deploy middle-range tools to challenge reductionist understandings of how the world actually works. In so doing, the books in this series embody the spirit of cultural sociology as an intellectual enterprise. Jeffrey C. Alexander is the Lillian Chavenson Saden Professor of Sociology and co-director of the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University. From 1995 2010, he edited (with Steven Seidman) the Cambridge Series on Cultural Social Studies and from 2004 2009 (with Julia Adams, Ron Eyerman, and Philip Gorsky) Sociological Theory. Among his recent books are The Civil Sphere and The Performance of Politics: Obama s Victory and the Democratic Struggle for Power. Ron Eyerman is professor of Sociology and co-director of the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University. His areas of research include social theory, trauma, and memory, and he has taught undergraduate and graduate courses on these topics. He is the author of The Assassination of Theo van Gogh: From Social Drama to Cultural Trauma. David Inglis is professor of Sociology at the University of Aberdeen. He is founding editor of the journal Cultural Sociology, published by Sage. His recent books include The Globalization of Food and Cosmopolitanism. Philip Smith is professor and co-director of the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University. His recent books include Why War?, Punishment and Culture, and Incivility: The Rude Stranger in Everyday Life (co-authored) among others. Interpreting Clifford Geertz Edited by Jeffrey C. Alexander, Philip Smith, and Matthew Norton The Cultural Sociology of Political Assassination Ron Eyerman Constructing Irish National Identity Anne Kane Iconic Power Edited by Jeffrey C. Alexander, Dominik Bartmański, and Bernhard Giesen Seeking Authenticity in Place, Culture, and the Self Nicholas Osbaldiston Reinventing Evidence in Social Inquiry Richard Biernacki

Reinventing Evidence in Social Inquiry Decoding Facts and Variables RICHARD BIERNACKI

REINVENTING EVIDENCE IN SOCIAL INQUIRY Copyright Richard Biernacki, 2012. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 All rights reserved. First published in 2012 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United States a division of St. Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-137-00727-8 ISBN 978-1-137-00728-5 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9781137007285 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Biernacki, Richard, 1956 Reinventing evidence in social inquiry : decoding facts and variables / Richard Biernacki. p. cm. (Cultural sociology) ISBN 978 1 137 00727 8 ISBN 978 1 137 00726 1 1. Social sciences Methodology. 2. Content analysis (Communication) 3. Discourse analysis. I. Title. H61.B4746 2012 300.72 dc23 2011051408 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: July 2012 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents Li s t of F i g u r e s S e r i e s P r e fa c e vii i x 1. Inside the Rituals of Social Science 1 2. T h e E nt i r e S t o r y 2 7 3. M e t h o d o l o g i c a l C a n o n s i n My F i e l d 57 4. A Q u a nt i f i a b l e I n d i c a t o r o f a F a b r i c a t e d M e a n i n g E l e m e nt 9 7 5. Wa r y R e a s o n i n g 12 7 Notes 157 Index 19 7

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Figures 1.1 N a r r a t i v e n e t w o r k s 2 1.2 Data interpretation as a Rorschach test 3 2.1 Structure of Nazi life history 28 2.2 Graphic representation of the following narrative sequence 37 3.1 Clustering of most influential authors, 1975 1984 68 3. 2 S u m m a r y o f c o d i n g r e s u l t s 7 9 3.3 Components of debates dominated by substantively or f o r m a l l y r a t i o n a l a r g u m e nt 7 9 4.1 Ambiguity and evaluation by novel 100 4. 2 A g r e e m e nt a n d d i s p e r s i o n 110

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Series Preface Cultural sociology is all about the study of meaning. Yet, the methodology for doing that empirically remains a point of contention. Philosophical arguments pitting interpretation against science go back centuries, doubting that the two can mix any more readily than oil and water. In recent years, however, many have claimed that new research methods have emerged that provide a breakthrough. With the formal coding of large numbers of texts, meanings can be tamed. When applied to qualitative data, such quantitative methods can allow generalizations to be made that avoid the relativism and subjectivism of earlier interpretive sociologies. In challenging this new methodological school, Richard Biernacki does something that nobody has done before. In addition to engaging in theoretical argumentation, he goes back to examine the original data to which flagship scholars applied their coding techniques. After critically reconstructing this data, Biernacki suggests that the published research claims are troubling: all that is solid melts into air. What appeared to be a rigorous new approach generating robust, intersubjectively valid, law-like findings is shown to involve the same interpretative choices, selectivity, and hermeneutic caprice as conventional idiographic and humanistic interpretation. There is no magic bullet. Rather than viewing formal coding as the new gold standard, Biernacki suggests, we should see it more as the ritual evocation of habitually accepted scientific norms. Only by demystifying this alchemical belief system can we open the way to a more honest and productive study of social meanings. Intellectually ambitious, theoretically rigorous, and certain to be controversial, Reinventing Evidence in Social Inquiry demonstrates that discussions of method are too important to be left to textbooks.