Politics as Interpretation
John Echeverri-Gent and Kamal Sadiq’s ‘Introduction’ synthesizes the understandings of the volume’s contributors into an interpretive analytical framework that builds upon the Rudolphs’ seminal insights. It elaborates the implications of the Rudolphs’ concept of ‘situated knowledge’ by depicting it in terms of the meanings and motivations constructed by people embedded in a field that is structured by social relations, time, place, and culture. Analyzing how actors translate contextual circumstances into meaning and motive is central to explaining how they choose strategies for action. Investigation of this interpretive process illuminates the importance of discourse, emotions, and political leadership in shaping the construction of meaning. The chapter elaborates the methodological implications of the interpretive approach including: the importance of interviewing, narrative analysis, and a reflexive approach to scholars’ knowledge claims which takes into account the positionality of the researcher and the researched and the manner in which their mutual interpretation shapes their knowledge claims.