Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung (HSR)
2/2013 – Cultural Analysis & In-Depth Hermeneutics

360 pages.

FOCUS I – Henning Salling Olesen (Ed.): Cultural Analysis & In-Depth Hermeneutics – Psycho-Societal Analysis of Everyday Life Culture, Interaction, and Learning

This HSR Focus presents a psycho-societal approach to qualitative empirical research in several areas of everyday social life. It is an approach which integrates a theory of subjectivity and an interpretation methodology integrating hermeneutic experiences from text analysis and psychoanalysis. Its particular focus is on subjectivity – as an aspect of the research object and as an aspect of the research process. By the term "approach", the intrinsic connection between the theorizing of an empirical object and the reflection of the research process and the epistemic subject is indicated. Special attention is paid to Lorenzer's development of a materialistic socialization theory and the indepth hermeneutic cultural analysis. The psycho-societal approach owes a great deal to critical reformulations of each of these traditions, which will be touched upon in some of the articles and will be combined with a number of empirical studies of everyday life culture, social practice, and learning.

FOCUS II – Fumiya Onaka (Ed.): Aspects of Process Theories & Process-Oriented Methodologies in Historical and Comparative Sociology

This HSR Focus discusses the relation between “process-oriented data” and theories, focusing on historical and comparative sociology. The term “process-oriented” has recently been gaining importance in various human and social science disciplines, in addition to the traditional focus on “process” in political science, law, biology, psychology, and philosophy. The process-oriented approach has been related to various theories, but it has been unclear which theories fit this type of data. The five contributions in this HSR Focus therefore examine the merits and demerits of these theories from the viewpoint of process-generated data covering theories as diverse as Path-Dependency Theory, Assemblage / Minoritarian Theory, Communication Process Theory, Nationalization / Symbolic Media Theory and Socio-Cultural Network Theory.

Furthermore this HSR contains a Mixed Issue.

Abstracts of all contributions are available on our website <http://www.gesis.org/hsr/>

Allen Abonnentinnen und Abonnenten von H-Soz-u-Kult bieten wir die neu erschienene HSR-Ausgabe Vol. 38 (2013) No. 2 zum Preis von EUR 12,- an. Rückfragen und Bestellungen richten Sie bitte per Mail an <hsr-quantum@gesis.org>.