How to Generate and Develop Theoretical Ideas Through Interviewing
10 h – 12 h · Conférence en anglais
Salle 201, Le CUBE
Ouvert à toute personne intéressée.
Intervenant
Bin Xu
Professeur de sociologie, Emory University
Discutante
Isabelle Thireau
Directrice d’études à l’EHESS et directrice de recherche au CNRS
Présentation
There are already many practical guides to the techniques of qualitative interviewing, and courses and studies on theory are even more abundant. Yet researchers continue to struggle with the connection between method and theory. How can we generate and develop theoretical ideas through qualitative interviews? How can a theoretical idea emerging from one interview be extended to another, or to a larger set of interviews? At what point can we say that we have conducted enough interviews? And why do researchers sometimes feel that their materials are yielding no new theoretical insights?
Guided by these questions, this talk introduces the theorizing approach that has emerged over the past decade or so, grounded in pragmatist philosophy. This approach emphasizes close and continual dialogue between theory and empirical materials, takes puzzles and surprises as starting points, and advocates discovering and developing theory rather than simply applying existing theories.
It also treats theorizing not as a matter of solitary contemplation, but as a practice that, like concrete research methods, can be trained and improved. Applying this approach to qualitative interviewing, this talk aims to dispel common myths about qualitative research, release participants’ creativity, and at the same time provide a more systematic way to train oneself and to develop ideas through group discussion.
Biographies
Bin Xu
Bin Xu est professeur de sociologie à l’Université Emory, aux États-Unis. Il sera corédacteur en chef de Sociological Theory, revue de l’American Sociological Association, pour la période 2027–2029. Ses recherches se situent au croisement de la théorie sociale, de la sociologie de la culture et de la sociologie politique. Il est l’auteur de The Culture of Democracy: A Sociological Approach to Civil Society (Polity, 2022), Chairman Mao’s Children: Generation and the Politics of Memory in China (Cambridge University Press, 2021) et The Politics of Compassion: The Sichuan Earthquake and Civic Engagement in China (Stanford University Press, 2017).
Isabelle Thireau
Isabelle Thireau est sociologue, directrice d’études à l’EHESS et directrice de recherche au CNRS, rattachée au Centre d’études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine du Centre Chine, Corée, Japon. Spécialiste de la société chinoise contemporaine, elle travaille notamment sur les normes, le sens du juste et les formes de rassemblement et d’association dans l’espace public.
Organisation scientifique · Siyu Li, Aix-Marseille Université, IrAsia (UMR 7306)
Contact · siyu.li@univ-amu.fr
Cette conférence bénéficie du soutien de l’Initiative d’excellence Amidex d’Aix-Marseille Université