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Humanist Interpretation Versus Coding Text Samples

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Abstract

As a methodological package, sampling and coding in a systematic manner serve as a hallmark of rigor for research into bodies of textual evidence. In truth this widely approved bundle of methods comprises a counterproductive tool. Applying humanist interpretation to exemplary texts with the “ideal-type” approach of Max Weber is superior by major criteria for the conduct of science as conventionally understood. Interpretation in this tradition is more transparent and traceable, more exposed to retesting, and wiser about standards of representativeness.

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Acknowledgments

For their incisive suggestions I remain profoundly indebted to reviewers for Qualitative Sociology and to participants at the 2013 ASA conference.

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  1. Department of Sociology, University of California, San Diego, 470 Social Science Building, Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093-0533, USA

    Richard Biernacki

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Correspondence to Richard Biernacki.

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Biernacki, R. Humanist Interpretation Versus Coding Text Samples. Qual Sociol 37, 173–188 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-014-9277-9

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