Interpretive Methodologies and Methods Conference Group
Business Meeting 2011
Friday, 2 September, 12:15-1:15 pm
Notes
1. Report from this year's program chair: Ido Oren, University of Florida
IMM had 13 paper submissions and 1 panel submission. Thanks to co-sponsorship, we parlayed our 1 panel allocation into 2 panels (see below). We also co-sponsored the Methods Café, which did not count toward our allocation. Dvora Yanow reported that the Café attracted approximately 60 visitors to 14 tables; the list of tables and “cafeterians” is included as Appendix 1.
Panel 1. Crafting Interpretive Research: Theoretical Possibilities and Practical Challenges (co-sponsored by QMMR)
Chair and discussant: Jan Kubik, Rutgers University
Collecting sensitive Data: On the Challenges of Studying Violence in Conflict
Devorah Manekin, University of California, Los Angeles
The “Political Effect” of Political Ethnography Revisited: Contributing to Local Government Election Campaign While Researching It”
Morris D. Bidjerano, Walden University
Embedded Ecologies: A Political Ethnography of Wildlife Conservation
Parakh Hoon, Virginia Tech
Object or Subject? The Role of Interpretive Methods for Studying Gender
Jessica Peet, University of Florida
Panel 2. Conceptualization: Theoretical Approaches and Empirical Applications (co-sponsored by the IPSA research committee on concepts and methods)
Chair and discussant: Robert Adcock, George Washington University
Concept Misformation in Multi-Method Research: Mechanism Muddling and Conceptual Slippage
Ariel Ahram, University of Oklahoma
The Concept Construction of "Chinese Democracy"
Wen-Hsuan Tsai, National Chengchi University (Taiwan)
Thin Descriptions: The Limits of Survey Research on the Meaning of Democracy
Frederic C. Schaffer, Univesity of Massachussetts, Amherst
Political Concepts between Individual Meaning-making and Socio-political Traditions: Bridging the Gap
Jürgen Petersen, Goethe University, Frankfurt/Main
(Note: Petersen did not show up)
2. Report on Short Course: “Field Research—Interpretive Approaches,” directed by Jan Kubik and Fred Schaffer. Jan and Fred reported that 7 people participated in the course. Participation was lower in comparison to the short course offered in 2010; the lesser demand may in part be attributed to lower overall attendance in the 2011 meeting.
3. Introducing next year's program chair and the Call for Papers: Ron Schmidt, California State University, Long Beach (emeritus).
Ron takes on the role of program chair for APSA 2012, in New Orleans. He will distribute the Call for Papers shortly through the I&M listserve and the new APSA page for IMM. The deadline for submissions is the same as the conference deadline. He invited interested participants to contact him informally to discuss panel and/or paper themes.
4. Award presentations
Hayward Alker best paper award, recognizing a paper by a PhD student presented at any conference the preceding year which best demonstrates the uses of interpretive methodologies and methods for the study of the political.
Award Committee: Ido Oren, University of Florida, chair; Edward Schatz, University of Toronto, Peregrine Schwartz-Shea, University of Utah
Professor Ann Tickner of the University of Southern California, Prof. Alker’s widow, spoke briefly about Alker’s broad-gauged intellectual horizon and his commitment to interpretive ways of knowing, with scholarship ranging over disciplines, methodologies, and time frames. She remarked on his criticism of the parochialism of IR, lacking attention to ethical dimensions and not inclusive of women. And she mentioned in particular a 2008 conference held at Brown University in Alker’s memory which resulted in the book Alker and IR: Global Studies in an Interconnected World,ed. Renee Marlin-Bennett (Routledge, 2011; afterword by Ann Tickner).
Presented to Konstantin Kilibarda, Graduate Program in Political Science, York University, for “Clearing Space: An Anatomy of Urban Renewal, Social Cleansing and Everyday Life in a Belgrade Mahala.” The paper was presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association, February 17-20, 2010 (New Orleans). It was nominated by Aida Hozic, University of Florida.
The committee’s citation read: “Konstantin Kilibarda's ‘Clearing Space: An Anatomy of Urban Renewal, Social Cleansing and Everyday Life in a Belgrade Mahala’ is a theoretically sophisticated examination of politics in hard-to-see spaces. Training his lens on the Roma of the Gazela Bridge in Belgrade, Kilibarda lays bare the process by which a translocal embrace of neo-liberal economics marks the Roma for displacement to make way for better transport links. The paper is thoroughly researched:using textual and other evidence, Kilibarda produces a powerful analysis of the discourse of both transnational and local institutions—how they construct the Roma as ‘passive, defeatist’ objects in need of the social improvement policies sponsored by these institutions. At the same time, he reconstructs the voice of the Roma themselves through texts like hip hop lyrics and press conference transcripts. Lucidly written, the paper showcases the best features of interpretive research—problematizing what otherwise might seem unproblematic, laying bare multiple layers of power relations and their disconcerting consequences, and showing that the outcome only ‘makes sense’ when one considers some very intensely political practices of meaning-making. For these reasons, we are honored to award Konstantin Kilibarda the 2011 Hayward R. Alker Student Paper Award.”
Charles Taylor book award for the best book in political science that employs or develops interpretive methodologies and methods (published within 2 years prior to the meeting, as determined by the copyright date).
Award Committee: Michael Loriaux, Northwestern University, chair; Pamela Brandwein, University of Michigan, Nicholas Onuf, Florida International University [emeritus] and Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro
According to the committee chair, “The committee gave close attention to a short list of 3 books, and a long short list of 6 books.” The committee decided that none of these was deserving of the award. As Dvora Yanow explained, members of the committee (who were unable to attend the meeting) felt that a large number of the books submitted “did not employ interpretive methods. Some...were behavioralist, others were books of Political Theory, some were historical but not self-consciously interpretive or historicist.”
To remedy this situation in the future, the committee chair suggested that: 1) IMM “communicate as clearly as we can what we’re looking for – that we are not simply looking for ‘non-quantitative work,’ but rather work that is self-consciously interpretive, and situates itself relative to interpretive literature”; 2) to encourage submissions of multiple entries from presses that are more likely to publish eligible works; 3) to encourage authors “not [to] be shy about nominating their own work if they know it qualifies....”
Grain of Sand award to honor a political scientist whose contributions to interpretive studies of the political and, indeed, to the discipline itself, its ideas and its persons, have been longstanding and merit special recognition.
Award Committee: Dvora Yanow, University of Amsterdam, and Peregrine Schwartz-Shea, University of Utah, chairs; Patrick Jackson, American University; Cecelia Lynch, UC Irvine; Julie Novkov, SUNY Albany; Ido Oren, University of Florida; Timothy Pachirat, New School for Social Research; Dorian Warren, Columbia University
Presented to Anne Norton, University of Pennsylvania.
The citation noted that Anne Norton is an ideal honoree both for her scholarship and for the work she has done in the profession to expand the scope of what counts as knowing in political science. Her research record exemplifies her tireless efforts to change how political science is done and what types of political science are valued. The citation singled out for attention two of Anne’s books: 95 Theses on Politics, Culture & Method and Leo Strauss and the Politics of American Empire, both published in 2004 by Yale University Press. And it notes the debt of gratitude interpretivists owe Prof. Norton for helping to open the space we now inhabit.
The full text of the citation follows as Appendix 2.
5. Members’ announcements
· Forthcoming publications and publishing opportunities:
Ø New book series from the University of Michigan Press: “Configurations: Critical Studies of World Politics,” edited by Patrick T. Jackson
Ø New book series: “Routledge Series on Interpretive Methods,” edited by Peregrine Schwartz-Shea and Dvora Yanow. The first volume, Interpretive Research Design: Concepts and Processes, by Schwartz-Shea and Yanow, will be released in December; additional volumes are in the pipeline. [Peri/Dvora]
· The job market: job openings of particular interest to IMM members? Job searches?
Ø Fred Schaffer announced 3 junior searches at UMass Amherst, including one in Comparative that is “interpretive-friendly”
Ø Peri Schwartz-Shea announced searches at the University of Utah
Ø Anne Norton noted what the University of Pennsylvania is searching for
Ø Jan Kubik remarked on searches at Rutgers
· A new IMM web forum has been set up by Dvora Yanow at APSA-Connect [Dvora]
· Institutional Review Board policy revisions, which might have an impact on field research, are under consideration. The deadline for comments is September 26, 2011. [Dvora/Peri]
· Affiliation for dues/donations purposes: ongoing issue, no resolution in sight; ideas wanted! [Dvora]
This led to the suggestion that another CG had found a workaround to address this problem; further information was promised, and Dvora will be following up
Submitted: Ido Oren and Dvora Yanow [5 February 2012]
Appendix 1. APSA Methods Café 2011
Host
Jen Jankowski, University of Utah
APD: Methodological issues
Joe Lowndes, University of Oregon
Archival research
Emily Hauptmann, Western Michigan University
Concepts: Reflexive approaches
Frederic Charles Schaffer, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Critical constructivist and discourse analysis
Lisa Wedeen, University of Chicago
Critical race theory
Stephen Marshall, UT Austin
Feminist methods
Mary Hawkesworth, Rutgers University
Field research overseas (political ethnography, participant observation, etc.)
Jan Kubik, Rutgers University
Interpretive policy analysis: Value-critical, policy discourse, policy spaces
Ron Schmidt, California State University, Long Beach
Dvora Yanow, University of Amsterdam
Intersectionality
Frances Henderson, Maryville College
Political ethnography and participant-observation: Field research in the US
Katherine Cramer Walsh, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Dorian Warren, Columbia University
Post-colonial analysis
Kevin Bruyneel, Babson College
Public law
Julie Novkov, SUNY Albany
Pamela Brandwein, University of Michigan
Reflexive historical analysis
Ido Oren, University of Florida
Research design for interpretive projects
Schwartz-Shea, Peregrine, University of Utah
Appendix 2. Grain of Sand Award 2011 – Citation
The Interpretive Methodologies and Methods Conference Group of the APSA is proud to recognize Anne Norton, Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, as this year's recipient of the Grain of Sand Award.
The award is intended to honor a political scientist whose contributions to interpretive studies of the political, and, indeed, to the discipline itself, its ideas and its persons, have been longstanding and merit special recognition. More specifically, drawing combined inspiration from the opening lines of William Blake's “Auguries of Innocence” and Wisława Szymborska's “View with a Grain of Sand,” after both of which it is named, the Grain of Sand Award honors a scholar whose contributions demonstrate creative and sustained engagement with questions of enduring political importance from an interpretive perspective. Echoing Szymborska's "We call it a grain of sand," the award underscores the centrality of meaning making in both the constitution and study of the political; drawing on Blake's "To see a world in a grain of sand," the award honors the capacity of interpretive scholarship to embody and inspire imaginative theorizing, the intentional cultivation of new lines of sight through an expansion of literary and experiential resources, and the nourishing of a playfulness of mind so necessary to the vitality of social science.
Anne Norton is an ideal honoree both for her scholarship and for the work she has done in the profession to expand the scope of what counts as knowing in political science. Her research record exemplifies her tireless efforts to change how political science is done and what types of political science are valued. Her 95 Theses on Politics, Culture & Method (Yale University Press, 2004) provides a stunning assault on political science orthodoxy and opens multiple possibilities for using interpretive and anti-foundational approaches to understand power, politics, culture, and identity. Her earlier works in political theory and American politics render these possibilities concrete through elegant applications of anthropological theories and semiotics to enduring questions about culture and identity.
In addition to 95 Theses Anne deserves special recognition for her Leo Strauss and the Politics of American Empire, also published in 2004 (Yale University Press). This courageous, beautifully-written book constitutes a compelling demonstration of some of her theses from the other book. Rather than feign political neutrality, she passionately engaged in the debate over the Iraq war, taking a clear stand against it (manifesting Thesis 55: “There are no neutral scientists”). And rather than expunge the author from the text, Anne imaginatively and profitably incorporated into the narrative her experience as a graduate student at the University of Chicago, where she studied under some of Leo Strauss’s leading students. Thus, this “[w]ork speaks simultaneously of its ostensible object and of its author and context” (Thesis 56). Inasmuch as Leo Strauss and the Politics of American Empire draws both on Anne’s life experiences and on her careful reading of Straussian texts, the book offers a compelling model of combining phenomenological and hermeneutic approaches to interpretation.
Finally, we would be remiss were we not to recognize Anne Norton’s work within the profession on behalf of interpretive methods, both as a challenger and gadfly to traditionalists and as a mentor and supporter for newer scholars who use interpretive and other non-positivist approaches. We all owe Anne Norton a debt of gratitude for helping to open the space we now inhabit.
Julie Novkov, Ido Oren, and Dvora Yanow on behalf of the 2010-2011 Committee:
Peregrine Schwartz-Shea, University of Utah – co-chair
Dvora Yanow, University of Amsterdam – co-chair
Patrick Jackson, American University
Cecelia Lynch, University of California, Irvine
Julie Novkov, SUNY Albany
Ido Oren, University of Florida
Tim Pachirat, New School
Dorian Warren, Columbia University