THE MEANINGS OF METHODOLOGYbeing studied might give; however, the closer it is to
the native’s account, the better. For example, one
way to test the truthfulness of an ISS study of pro-
fessional gambling is to have professional gamblers
read it and verify its accuracy. A good report tells a
reader enough about the world of professional
gambling so that if the reader absorbed it and then
met a professional gambler, the understanding of
gambling jargon, outlook, and lifestyle might lead
the gambler to ask whether the reader was also a
professional gambler.
8.What does good evidence or factual infor-
mation look like?
Good evidence in positivism is observable, pre-
cise, and independent of theory and values. In con-
trast, ISS sees the features of specific contexts and
meanings as essential to understand social mean-
ing. Evidence about social action cannot be isolated
from the context in which it occurs or the meanings
assigned to it by the social actors involved. As
Weber (1978:5) said, “Empathic or appreciative ac-
curacy is attained when, through sympathetic par-
ticipation, we can adequately grasp the emotional
context in which the action took place.”
For ISS, facts are fluid and embedded within a
meaning system; they are not impartial, objective,
or neutral. Facts are contingent and context specific;
they depend on combinations of specific events with
particular people in a specific setting. What PSS
assumes—that neutral outsiders observe behavior
and see unambiguous, objective facts—ISS takes as
a question to be addressed: How do people observe
ambiguities in social life and assign meaning? In-
terpretive researchers say that social situations are
filled with ambiguity. Most behaviors or statements
can have several meanings and can be interpreted
in multiple ways. In the flow of social life, people
are constantly “making sense” by reassessing clues
in the situation and assigning meanings until they
“know what’s going on.” For example, I see a
woman holding her hand out, palm forward. Even
this simple act carries multiple potential meanings;
I do not know its meaning without knowing the so-
cial situation. It could mean that she is warding off
a potential mugger, drying her nail polish, hailing a
taxi, admiring a new ring, telling oncoming traffic
to stop for her, or requesting five bagels at a deli
counter.^15 People are able to assign appropriate
meaning to an act or statement only if they consider
the social context in which it occurs.
ISS researchers rarely ask survey questions,
aggregate the answers of many people, or claim to
obtain something meaningful to the questions. To
ISS researchers, each person’s interpretation of the
survey question must be placed in a context (e.g.,
the individual’s previous experiences or the survey
interview situation), and the true meaning of a per-
son’s answer will vary according to the interview or
questioning context. Moreover, because each per-
son assigns a somewhat different meaning to the
question and answer, combining answers produces
only nonsense.
When studying a setting or data, interpretive re-
searchers of the ethnomethodological school often
use bracketing. It is a mental exercise in which the
researcher identifies and then sets aside taken-for-
granted assumptions used in a social scene. ISS re-
searchers question and reexamine ordinary events
that have an “obvious” meaning to those involved.
For example, at an office work setting, one male co-
worker in his late twenties says to the male re-
searcher, “We’re getting together for softball after
work tonight. Do you want to join us?” What is not
saidis that the researcher should know the rules of
softball, own a softball glove, and change from a
business suit into other clothing before the game.
Bracketing reveals what “everyone knows”: what
people assume but rarely say. It makes visible sig-
nificant features of the social scene that make other
events possible and is the underlying scaffolding of
understandings on which actions are based.9.What is the relevance or use of social sci-
entific knowledge?
Interpretative social scientists want to learn
how the world works so they can acquire an in-depthBracketing A strategy of interpretive social science
researchers to identify the taken-for-granted assump-
tions of a social scene and then set them aside or hold
them in temporary abeyance. By recognizing and sep-
arating the ordinary, “obvious” meanings people use in
daily life, researchers can better understand their role.