METHODOLOGICAL INDIVIDUALISM

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathy Charmaz

The pragmatist roots of constructivist grounded theory make it a useful method for pursuing critical qualitative inquiry. Pragmatism offers ways to think about critical qualitative inquiry; constructivist grounded theory offers strategies for doing it. Constructivist grounded theory fosters asking emergent critical questions throughout inquiry. This method also encourages (a) interrogating the taken-for-granted methodological individualism pervading much of qualitative research and (b) taking a deeply reflexive stance called methodological self-consciousness, which leads researchers to scrutinize their data, actions, and nascent analyses. The article outlines how to put constructivist grounded theory into practice and ends with where this practice could take us.


2020 ◽  
Vol 140 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-222
Author(s):  
Marek Louzek

This article presents Max Weber as an economist and as a social scientist. Weber’s relations to economics, philosophy and sociology are discussed. Max Weber has more in common with economists than it might seem at first sight. His principle of value neutrality has become the foundation of the methodology of social sciences, including economics. The second point shared by Max Weber with standard economics is methodological individualism. The third point which a modern economist can learn from Max Weber is the concept of the ideal type.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Suzana Ignjatović ◽  
Aleksandar Bošković

The paper deals with methodological individualism in sociocultural anthropology. Key theories and debates within the framework of methodological individualism in anthropology are presented in the paper. The authors discuss criticisms aimed at the use of methodological individualism in anthropology as not suitable for anthropology, due to its specificity. Instead, they argue that methodological individualism has advantages for a better understanding of many anthropological topics, especially compared to methodological holism. The authors’ assumption is that anthropology is not exclusively a holistic science, as the history of anthropological theory points to an important tradition of methodological individualism. The focus is placed on alternative models of scientific explanation, found in the works of contemporary anthropologists (Holy, Stuchlik), as well as methodological individualists from other disciplines (Boudon), whose conclusions are applicable to anthropology. Methodological individualism does have a significant place in anthropology. There are areas of anthropology that can draw heuristic benefit from epistemological approaches based on the principles of methodological individualism.


2007 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey M. Hodgson

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