Varieties of “Sociological Enlightenment”: Critical Arts-Based Inquiry versus German Reconstructive Social Research

This article is a methodological reflection on recent developments in qualitative research. It discusses the methodology of critical arts-based qualitative inquiry (CAI).Since the 1980s and in postmodern, poststructural or postpositivist approaches CAI is seen as a renewal of qualitative research. T...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Alexander Geimer PhD
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2015-02-01
Series:International Journal of Qualitative Methods
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/160940691501400104
Description
Summary:This article is a methodological reflection on recent developments in qualitative research. It discusses the methodology of critical arts-based qualitative inquiry (CAI).Since the 1980s and in postmodern, poststructural or postpositivist approaches CAI is seen as a renewal of qualitative research. Though, apart from special discourses in Cultural Studies, CAI seems to be ignored by German sociology. I will focus on the theoretical-methodological fundamentals of these approaches with respect to a politics of interpretation, and discuss these basics from the perspective of German qualitative-reconstructive research traditions. Although CAI can be a source of productive irritations, the differences suggest contrasting concepts of a “sociological enlightenment.”
ISSN:1609-4069