Over de methodologie van beschrijving en interpretatie in Eliaans historisch-sociologisch onderzoek

Samenvatting

On the Methodology of Description and Interpretation in Historical-Sociological Research in the Tradition of Elias. The methodology of Norbert Elias's Uber den Prozess der Zivilization; soziogenetische und psychogenetische Untersuchungen ([The Process of Civilization: Sociogenetic and Psychogenetic Studies] Basel: Haus zum Falken, 1939) and other works involves interpretations where the historian gives new meanings to the local meanings of original historical events. A survey of historians utilizing Elias's methodology is presented, criticizing their reformulation of local events as indicative of unmistakable civilization processes, presupposing the flow of history as a coherent development. An alternative is proposed stressing the reading of primary sources as local readings of historical events. In De maatschappij als tekst. Eeen reactie op Gerhard Nijhof (Society as Text. A Response to Gerhard Nijhof), Nico Wilterdink argues that three of Nijhof's basic assumptions are false: (1) description, not interpretation, is the goal of science; (2) pure description is possible only within the boundaries of local meanings; and (3) local meanings cannot be taken out of their framework. Dismissing sociological symbolism and constructionism, the case is advanced for a sociology focusing on the relationships between symbols, material conditions, power, and dependency. M. Meeks