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Department of Political and Social Change and the School of Politics and International Relations · ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences / ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
Interpretivism is an approach to inquiry that has evolved in the social Sciences from the late 19thCentury. It is an approach that begins with the empirical observation that societies are constructed out of human capacity to communicate and therefore orients its inquiry toward human beings as meaning makers situated within ‘webs of signification’. Interpretivist modes of inquiry have found a ‘natural’ home within disciplines dealing with social structure (such as sociology), disciplines confronting different cultures (such as anthropology) and disciplines whose data set tends to be textual, at least historically (such as the humanities and history). Interpretivist scholarship has also developed in conversation with (and sometimes in debate with) more dominant approaches in the social sciences often referred to as ‘positivism’. The disciplines of Political Science and International Relations have been late comers to these developments but since the end of the cold war constructivist approaches have become part of the mainstream in International Relations and Political Science has recognised the importance of textual data in a world dominated by the use (and sometimes abuse) of Information Communications Technology. Scholars in the US and Europe have begun consolidating this long and rich tradition under the umbrella “Interpretive Social Science” as an approach to inquiry that focuses on language, meaning and communication. This course introduces students to this tradition beginning with Peter Berger & Thomas Luckmann’s (1966) The Social Construction of Reality. The course is designed to get students ‘thinking interpretively’ through a series of short practicum exercises that alert students to the ways that communications and meaning structure our societies and engage them in analytical exercised designed to demonstrate the complexity of hermeneutical and other varieties of interpretive analysis, as well as encourage them to think about the methodological advantages and complexities of interpretive research.
Typical assessment may include, but is not restricted to: exams, assignments, quizzes, presentations, participation and other assessment as appropriate. See class summary for final details for 2025.
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
130 Hours of total student learning time made up from: a) 36 hours of contact over 12 weeks: 24 hours of lectures and 12 hours of workshop and workshop-like activities; and b) 94 hours of independent student research, reading and writing
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