What good are interviews for thinking about culture? Demystifying interpretive analysis

• Published in: American journal of cultural sociology Vol. 1; no. 1; pp. 42 - 68
• Main Author: Pugh, Allison J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Palgrave Macmillan UK 01.02.2013; Palgrave Macmillan
• Subjects: Access; Behavior; Consciousness; Cultural groups; Culture; Interviews; Media Sociology; Original Article; R&D; Research & development; Researcher subject relations; Social Sciences; Sociology; Sociology of Culture; Studies; Theory; emotions; culture; methods; theory; interviews
• ISSN: 2049-7113; 2049-7121
• DOI: 10.1057/ajcs.2012.4

This article evaluates the claims of a small but active group of culture scholars who have used theoretical models of bifurcated consciousness to allege important methodological implications for research in culture. These scholars, whom I dub ‘cognitive culturalists’, have dismissed the utility of in-depth interviewing to access the visceral, causally powerful level of ‘practical consciousness’. I argue these scholars are misguided in their diagnosis of a problem (interviews can only access people's after-the-fact rationalizations), and their vision of a solution (culture scholars need to access the ‘snap judgments’ that map onto the subterranean level of practical consciousness). I contend these flaws are tied to a limited understanding of the kind of information available in interviews, particularly the in-depth interview subjected to interpretive analysis. Using data from a recent book project on commitment, I elaborate on four kinds of information harbored in interviews: the honorable, the schematic, the visceral and meta-feelings. I rely on these forms of data to argue for scholars to expect, and to use analytically – rather than strive to ‘solve’ theoretically – the contradictory cultural accounts that our research subjects evince. Furthermore, I demonstrate how interpretive interviewing allows researchers access to an emotional landscape that brings a broader, social dimension to individual motivation.