Justifications Analysis

Abstract

Justifications analysis (JA) is a methodological approach that operationalizes the categories of common good principles presented in the theoretical literature on the economics and sociology of conventions (EC/SC) for systematic empirical analysis of justifications in public debates. JA draws from three principle sources: theoretically, the original work in On Justification (Boltanski and Thévenot, On justification. Economies of worth. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006) and methodologically, content analysis and different applications of frame analysis deployed in media and social movement studies. This chapter introduces the groundings for this methodological approach and its connections to previous tools used with similar empirical objects. It offers a how-to of the method, explaining the steps that utilizing the method requires, as well as concrete examples of the kind of analyses the method enables. Furthermore, the chapter reviews key empirical studies employing JA and synthesizes their contributions to the theoretical development of EC/SC. Finally, the chapter explores recent extensions of JA and suggests avenues for future research for its use.