The metaphor of resonance often describes the fit between a message and an audience’s worldviews.... more The metaphor of resonance often describes the fit between a message and an audience’s worldviews. Yet scholars have largely ignored the cognitive processes audiences use to interpret messages and interactions that determine why certain messages and other cultural objects appeal to some but not others. Drawing on pragmatism, we argue that resonance occurs as cultural objects help people puzzle through practical challenges they face or construct. We discuss how cognitive distance and the process of emotional reasoning shape the likelihood of cultural resonance. We argue resonance is an emergent process structured by interactions between individuals that shape each other’s interpretation of cultural objects, diffuse objects through interactional circuits, and create opportunities for resonance among people facing similarly-shaped problems. Our approach thus identifies new processes at micro, meso, and macro-levels of analysis that shape resonance and describes the pathways that might allow resonance to crystallize into broader mobilization and social change.
This article makes the case for shadowing as ethnographic methodology: focusing attention on what... more This article makes the case for shadowing as ethnographic methodology: focusing attention on what occurs as interlocutors move among settings and situations. Whereas ethnographers often zoom in on one principal set of situations or site, we argue that intersituational variation broadens and deepens the researcher's ethnographic account as well as affording important correctives to some common inferential pitfalls. We provide four warrants for shadowing: (a) buttressing intersituational claims, (b) deepening ethnographers' ability to trace meaning making by showing how meanings shift as they travel and how such shifts may affect interlocutors' under-standings, (c) gaining leverage on the structure of subjects' social worlds, and (d) helping the ethnographer make larger causal arguments. We show the use value of these considerations through an analysis of violence and informal networks in an ethnography of immigrant Latinos who met to socialize and play soccer in a Los Angeles park.
This article presents a theoretical approach for studying the coordination of futures. Building o... more This article presents a theoretical approach for studying the coordination of futures. Building off theories of temporality and action, the authorsmap three different modes of future making—protentions, trajectories, and temporal landscapes—that actors need to coordinate in order to make sense of action together. Using a wide range of empirical evidence, they then show that these modes of future-coordination are autonomous from each other, so that although they are connected, they can clash or move in disjointed directions in interaction. By focusing on the coordination and disjunctures of those three modes, the authors argue that sociologists can provide a methodological axis of comparison between cases; depict mechanisms through which other theoretical or empirical constructs—such as racism or late modernity—operate; and open a window into the ways in which people organize and coordinate their futures, a topic of inquiry in its own right.
This article develops an account of the relationship between codification, interactional achievem... more This article develops an account of the relationship between codification, interactional achievements and forms of sociality in the context of religious worship.Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a Jewish Orthodox community in Los Angeles, I argue that an important part of what makes public worship situations compelling is how they interactionally highlight individual participants’ lives, creating pressures to engage in predictable forms of sociality. This argument is then developed in two contexts: (a) “information gaps” encoded in the structure of daily Orthodox prayer, and; (b) the religious requirement to pray with a quorum of ten adult men. Through these examples I argue that codified aspects of public ritual give rise to variations that participants may understand to highlight individual lives. In many situations, public worship is compelling precisely because it actually individualizes participation. As these interactions are predicated on a codified structure, they provide “institutional fingerprints” for the construction of specific patterns of sociality. An appreciation of this aspect of public worship provides grounds for a broad comparative agenda, focusing on the relationship between codification, interactional patterns and forms of sociality within, and beyond, religious contexts.
A critical pathway for conceptual innovation in the social sciences is the construction of theore... more A critical pathway for conceptual innovation in the social sciences is the construction of theoretical ideas based on empirical data. Grounded theory has become a leading approach promising the construction of novel theories. Yet grounded theory–based theoretical innovation has been scarce in part because of its commitment to let theories emerge inductively rather than imposing analytic frameworks a priori. We note, along with a long philosophical tradition, that induction does not logically lead to novel theoretical insights. Drawing from the theory of inference, meaning, and action of pragmatist philosopher Charles S. Peirce, we argue that abduction, rather than induction, should be the guiding principle of empirically based theory construction. Abduction refers to a creative inferential process aimed at producing new hypotheses and theories based on surprising research evidence. We propose that abductive analysis arises from actors’ social and intellectual positions but can be further aided by careful methodological data analysis. We outline how formal methodological steps enrich abductive analysis through the processes of revisiting, defamiliarization, and alternative casing.
This article focuses on Malawian sex workers’ understandings of exchange and intimacy, showing ho... more This article focuses on Malawian sex workers’ understandings of exchange and intimacy, showing how multiple historically emergent categories and specific work pragmatics produce specific patterns of relational meanings. As we show, sex workers make sense of their relationships with clients through two categories. The first is sex work; the second is the chibwenzi, an intimate premarital relational category that emerged from pre-colonial transformations in courtship practices. These categories, in turn, are also shaped differently in different work settings. We use narratives from in-depth interviews with 45 sex workers and bar managers in southern Malawi to describe how the everyday pragmatics of two forms of sex work—performed by “bargirls” and “freelancers”—foster distinct understandings of relationships between them and men they have sex with. Bargirls, who work and live in bars, blurred the boundaries between “regulars” and chibwenzi; freelancers, who are not tethered to a specific work environment, often subverted the meanings of the chibwenzi, presenting these relationships as both intimate and emotionally distant. Through this comparison, we thus refine an approach to the study of the intimacy-exchange nexus, and use it to capture the complexities of gender relations in post-colonial Malawi.
This article develops the concept of experiential careers, drawing theoretical attention to the r... more This article develops the concept of experiential careers, drawing theoretical attention to the routinization and de-routinization of specific experiences as they unfold over social career trajectories. Based on interviews and ethnographic fieldwork
in two religious communities, we compare the social-temporal patterning of religious experience among newly religious Orthodox Jews and converted Muslims in two cities in the United States. In both cases, we find that as newly religious people
work to transform their previous bodily habits and take on newly prescribed religious acts, the beginning of their religious careers becomes marked by what practitioners describe as potent religious experiences in situations of religious practice. However,
over time, these once novel practices become routinized and religious experiences in these situations diminish, thus provoking actors and institutions in both fields to work to re-enchant religious life. Through this ethnographic comparison, we demonstrate the utility of focusing on experiential careers as a sociological unit of analysis. Doing so allows sociologists to use a non-reductive phenomenological approach to chart the
shifting manifestations of experiences people deeply care about, along with the patterned enchantments, disenchantments, and possible re-enchantments these social careers entail. As such, this approach contributes to the analysis of social careers and
experiences of “becoming” across both religious and on-religious domains.
This article develops a research position that allows cultural sociologists to compare morality a... more This article develops a research position that allows cultural sociologists to compare morality across sociohistorical cases. In order to do so, the article suggests focusing analytic attention on actions that fulfill the following criteria: (a) actions that define the actor as a certain kind of socially recognized person, both within and across fields; (b) actions that actors experience—or that they expect others to perceive—as defining the actor both intersituationally and to a greater extent than other available definitions of self; and (c) actions to which actors either have themselves, or expect others to have, a predictable emotional reaction. Such a position avoids both a realist moral sociology and descriptive-relativism, and provides sociologists with criteria for comparing moral action in different cases while staying attuned to social and historical specificity.
Based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, this article delineates a process through which m... more Based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, this article delineates a process through which members of an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Los Angeles unintentionally delegate boundary work and membership-identification to anonymous others in everyday life. Living in the midst of a non-Jewish world, orthodox men are often approached by others, both Jews and non-Jews, who categorize them as “religious Jews” based on external marks such as the yarmulke and attire. These interactions, varying from mundane interactions to anti-Semitic incidents, are then tacitly anticipated by members even when they are not attending to their “Jewishness”—when being a “Jew” is interactionally invisible. Through this case, I argue that, in addition to conceptualizing boundaries and identifications as either emerging in performance or institutionally given and stable, the study of boundaries should also chart the sites in which members anticipate categorization and the way these anticipations play out in everyday life.
This article analyzes the relation between the development of religious institutions and neighbor... more This article analyzes the relation between the development of religious institutions and neighborhood formation in the main Jewish Orthodox neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Melrose-La Brea neighborhood, an ethnically Jewish area since the 1930s, was transformed by religious place entrepreneurs from the East Coast in the 1970s. The emerging Orthodox community, however, was not principally populated by converting secular Jews. Instead, by developing prestigious institutions, religious place entrepreneurs made it into a viable destination for Orthodox Jews across the United States. Contrary to ‘supply side’ models developed in the sociology of religion, I then argue that institutional ‘supply’ may be successful without producing local ‘religious demand’. Moving from a market metaphor to examine the role of far reaching networks, I contend that the success of religious place entrepreneurs in this case emerged from the relation between institutional development, the production of neighborhood identity, and population movements within an ethnic geography
Sociological ethnography largely draws upon two epistemologically competing perspectives – ground... more Sociological ethnography largely draws upon two epistemologically competing perspectives – grounded theory and the extended case method – with a different conceptualization of sociological case-construction and theory. We argue that the sociological case in the extended case method is foremost a form of theoretical framing: relying on theoretical narratives to delineate the boundaries of an empirical field. Grounded theory follows the tenets of Chicago school ethnography where the sociological case is elicited from ethno-narratives of actors in the field: the institutionally and interactionally delimited ways members in the field ‘case’ their action. This difference in sociological casing, in turn, is reflected in the ways theory is used. Where the extended case method uses theoretical narratives as a denouement of the case, grounded theory
employs theory to construct a grammar of social life.
Using ethnographic fieldwork, this paper examines the relation between practices of individuality... more Using ethnographic fieldwork, this paper examines the relation between practices of individuality and solidarity in an alternative spiritual gathering called “The Rainbow” in Israel. Following
the “practice turn” in sociological theory, we chart the social situations in which solidarity and individuality are formed, and the ways in which their multiple uses frame their meanings. We
demonstrate that though members use the communal arena to express their individuality, the self they celebrate is constantly molded by practices creating solidarity. Through institutionalized rituals, everyday metaphors and interactions, and the formation of friendships in the field, members both relate to the community as a site for the assertion of selfhood, and incorporate the communal into the very definition of the self—thus weaving them together in action.
This article examines the widespread resistance to condom use in sub-Saharan Africa by describing... more This article examines the widespread resistance to condom use in sub-Saharan Africa by describing the major semiotic axes that organize how people talk about condoms and condom use. These axes include the “sweetness” of sex, trust and love between sexual partners, and assessments of risk and danger. Using data from rural Malawi, we show that framing the meaning of condoms as a simple choice between risky behavior and rational attempts to protect one’s health ignores the complex semiotic space that Malawians navigate. Based on data from more than 600 diaries that record rural Malawians’ everyday conversations, our analysis charts the semiotic axes related to condom use. Semiotic constraints operate most powerfully at the level of relationships. Condom use signifies a risky, less serious, and less intimate partner. Even when people believe that condom use is appropriate, wise, or even a matter of life and death, the statement that condom use makes about a relationship usually trumps all other meanings. We call for a more nuanced analysis of culture, one that is attentive to the ways agents navigate multiple, contested meanings, and that demonstrates how specific semiotic axes are brought to bear in particular interactional contexts.
This Article develops the interactional structure of flirtation. Refining Simmel's analysis, I s... more This Article develops the interactional structure of flirtation. Refining Simmel's analysis, I show flirtation as a way in which two time frames are continuously maintained within the same interaction. Rather than moving into a future interaction by using what I term "actualization practices" -- actions which thrust the present interaction into a future -- interactants simultaneously use practices from both time frames, careful not to irrevocably shift the situation. The management of interactional ambiguity in flirtation is then analyzed as a key to examine other ambiguous or "suspended" interactions, where interactants must work to keep different potential future possibilities open.
The metaphor of resonance often describes the fit between a message and an audience’s worldviews.... more The metaphor of resonance often describes the fit between a message and an audience’s worldviews. Yet scholars have largely ignored the cognitive processes audiences use to interpret messages and interactions that determine why certain messages and other cultural objects appeal to some but not others. Drawing on pragmatism, we argue that resonance occurs as cultural objects help people puzzle through practical challenges they face or construct. We discuss how cognitive distance and the process of emotional reasoning shape the likelihood of cultural resonance. We argue resonance is an emergent process structured by interactions between individuals that shape each other’s interpretation of cultural objects, diffuse objects through interactional circuits, and create opportunities for resonance among people facing similarly-shaped problems. Our approach thus identifies new processes at micro, meso, and macro-levels of analysis that shape resonance and describes the pathways that might allow resonance to crystallize into broader mobilization and social change.
This article makes the case for shadowing as ethnographic methodology: focusing attention on what... more This article makes the case for shadowing as ethnographic methodology: focusing attention on what occurs as interlocutors move among settings and situations. Whereas ethnographers often zoom in on one principal set of situations or site, we argue that intersituational variation broadens and deepens the researcher's ethnographic account as well as affording important correctives to some common inferential pitfalls. We provide four warrants for shadowing: (a) buttressing intersituational claims, (b) deepening ethnographers' ability to trace meaning making by showing how meanings shift as they travel and how such shifts may affect interlocutors' under-standings, (c) gaining leverage on the structure of subjects' social worlds, and (d) helping the ethnographer make larger causal arguments. We show the use value of these considerations through an analysis of violence and informal networks in an ethnography of immigrant Latinos who met to socialize and play soccer in a Los Angeles park.
This article presents a theoretical approach for studying the coordination of futures. Building o... more This article presents a theoretical approach for studying the coordination of futures. Building off theories of temporality and action, the authorsmap three different modes of future making—protentions, trajectories, and temporal landscapes—that actors need to coordinate in order to make sense of action together. Using a wide range of empirical evidence, they then show that these modes of future-coordination are autonomous from each other, so that although they are connected, they can clash or move in disjointed directions in interaction. By focusing on the coordination and disjunctures of those three modes, the authors argue that sociologists can provide a methodological axis of comparison between cases; depict mechanisms through which other theoretical or empirical constructs—such as racism or late modernity—operate; and open a window into the ways in which people organize and coordinate their futures, a topic of inquiry in its own right.
This article develops an account of the relationship between codification, interactional achievem... more This article develops an account of the relationship between codification, interactional achievements and forms of sociality in the context of religious worship.Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a Jewish Orthodox community in Los Angeles, I argue that an important part of what makes public worship situations compelling is how they interactionally highlight individual participants’ lives, creating pressures to engage in predictable forms of sociality. This argument is then developed in two contexts: (a) “information gaps” encoded in the structure of daily Orthodox prayer, and; (b) the religious requirement to pray with a quorum of ten adult men. Through these examples I argue that codified aspects of public ritual give rise to variations that participants may understand to highlight individual lives. In many situations, public worship is compelling precisely because it actually individualizes participation. As these interactions are predicated on a codified structure, they provide “institutional fingerprints” for the construction of specific patterns of sociality. An appreciation of this aspect of public worship provides grounds for a broad comparative agenda, focusing on the relationship between codification, interactional patterns and forms of sociality within, and beyond, religious contexts.
A critical pathway for conceptual innovation in the social sciences is the construction of theore... more A critical pathway for conceptual innovation in the social sciences is the construction of theoretical ideas based on empirical data. Grounded theory has become a leading approach promising the construction of novel theories. Yet grounded theory–based theoretical innovation has been scarce in part because of its commitment to let theories emerge inductively rather than imposing analytic frameworks a priori. We note, along with a long philosophical tradition, that induction does not logically lead to novel theoretical insights. Drawing from the theory of inference, meaning, and action of pragmatist philosopher Charles S. Peirce, we argue that abduction, rather than induction, should be the guiding principle of empirically based theory construction. Abduction refers to a creative inferential process aimed at producing new hypotheses and theories based on surprising research evidence. We propose that abductive analysis arises from actors’ social and intellectual positions but can be further aided by careful methodological data analysis. We outline how formal methodological steps enrich abductive analysis through the processes of revisiting, defamiliarization, and alternative casing.
This article focuses on Malawian sex workers’ understandings of exchange and intimacy, showing ho... more This article focuses on Malawian sex workers’ understandings of exchange and intimacy, showing how multiple historically emergent categories and specific work pragmatics produce specific patterns of relational meanings. As we show, sex workers make sense of their relationships with clients through two categories. The first is sex work; the second is the chibwenzi, an intimate premarital relational category that emerged from pre-colonial transformations in courtship practices. These categories, in turn, are also shaped differently in different work settings. We use narratives from in-depth interviews with 45 sex workers and bar managers in southern Malawi to describe how the everyday pragmatics of two forms of sex work—performed by “bargirls” and “freelancers”—foster distinct understandings of relationships between them and men they have sex with. Bargirls, who work and live in bars, blurred the boundaries between “regulars” and chibwenzi; freelancers, who are not tethered to a specific work environment, often subverted the meanings of the chibwenzi, presenting these relationships as both intimate and emotionally distant. Through this comparison, we thus refine an approach to the study of the intimacy-exchange nexus, and use it to capture the complexities of gender relations in post-colonial Malawi.
This article develops the concept of experiential careers, drawing theoretical attention to the r... more This article develops the concept of experiential careers, drawing theoretical attention to the routinization and de-routinization of specific experiences as they unfold over social career trajectories. Based on interviews and ethnographic fieldwork
in two religious communities, we compare the social-temporal patterning of religious experience among newly religious Orthodox Jews and converted Muslims in two cities in the United States. In both cases, we find that as newly religious people
work to transform their previous bodily habits and take on newly prescribed religious acts, the beginning of their religious careers becomes marked by what practitioners describe as potent religious experiences in situations of religious practice. However,
over time, these once novel practices become routinized and religious experiences in these situations diminish, thus provoking actors and institutions in both fields to work to re-enchant religious life. Through this ethnographic comparison, we demonstrate the utility of focusing on experiential careers as a sociological unit of analysis. Doing so allows sociologists to use a non-reductive phenomenological approach to chart the
shifting manifestations of experiences people deeply care about, along with the patterned enchantments, disenchantments, and possible re-enchantments these social careers entail. As such, this approach contributes to the analysis of social careers and
experiences of “becoming” across both religious and on-religious domains.
This article develops a research position that allows cultural sociologists to compare morality a... more This article develops a research position that allows cultural sociologists to compare morality across sociohistorical cases. In order to do so, the article suggests focusing analytic attention on actions that fulfill the following criteria: (a) actions that define the actor as a certain kind of socially recognized person, both within and across fields; (b) actions that actors experience—or that they expect others to perceive—as defining the actor both intersituationally and to a greater extent than other available definitions of self; and (c) actions to which actors either have themselves, or expect others to have, a predictable emotional reaction. Such a position avoids both a realist moral sociology and descriptive-relativism, and provides sociologists with criteria for comparing moral action in different cases while staying attuned to social and historical specificity.
Based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, this article delineates a process through which m... more Based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, this article delineates a process through which members of an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Los Angeles unintentionally delegate boundary work and membership-identification to anonymous others in everyday life. Living in the midst of a non-Jewish world, orthodox men are often approached by others, both Jews and non-Jews, who categorize them as “religious Jews” based on external marks such as the yarmulke and attire. These interactions, varying from mundane interactions to anti-Semitic incidents, are then tacitly anticipated by members even when they are not attending to their “Jewishness”—when being a “Jew” is interactionally invisible. Through this case, I argue that, in addition to conceptualizing boundaries and identifications as either emerging in performance or institutionally given and stable, the study of boundaries should also chart the sites in which members anticipate categorization and the way these anticipations play out in everyday life.
This article analyzes the relation between the development of religious institutions and neighbor... more This article analyzes the relation between the development of religious institutions and neighborhood formation in the main Jewish Orthodox neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Melrose-La Brea neighborhood, an ethnically Jewish area since the 1930s, was transformed by religious place entrepreneurs from the East Coast in the 1970s. The emerging Orthodox community, however, was not principally populated by converting secular Jews. Instead, by developing prestigious institutions, religious place entrepreneurs made it into a viable destination for Orthodox Jews across the United States. Contrary to ‘supply side’ models developed in the sociology of religion, I then argue that institutional ‘supply’ may be successful without producing local ‘religious demand’. Moving from a market metaphor to examine the role of far reaching networks, I contend that the success of religious place entrepreneurs in this case emerged from the relation between institutional development, the production of neighborhood identity, and population movements within an ethnic geography
Sociological ethnography largely draws upon two epistemologically competing perspectives – ground... more Sociological ethnography largely draws upon two epistemologically competing perspectives – grounded theory and the extended case method – with a different conceptualization of sociological case-construction and theory. We argue that the sociological case in the extended case method is foremost a form of theoretical framing: relying on theoretical narratives to delineate the boundaries of an empirical field. Grounded theory follows the tenets of Chicago school ethnography where the sociological case is elicited from ethno-narratives of actors in the field: the institutionally and interactionally delimited ways members in the field ‘case’ their action. This difference in sociological casing, in turn, is reflected in the ways theory is used. Where the extended case method uses theoretical narratives as a denouement of the case, grounded theory
employs theory to construct a grammar of social life.
Using ethnographic fieldwork, this paper examines the relation between practices of individuality... more Using ethnographic fieldwork, this paper examines the relation between practices of individuality and solidarity in an alternative spiritual gathering called “The Rainbow” in Israel. Following
the “practice turn” in sociological theory, we chart the social situations in which solidarity and individuality are formed, and the ways in which their multiple uses frame their meanings. We
demonstrate that though members use the communal arena to express their individuality, the self they celebrate is constantly molded by practices creating solidarity. Through institutionalized rituals, everyday metaphors and interactions, and the formation of friendships in the field, members both relate to the community as a site for the assertion of selfhood, and incorporate the communal into the very definition of the self—thus weaving them together in action.
This article examines the widespread resistance to condom use in sub-Saharan Africa by describing... more This article examines the widespread resistance to condom use in sub-Saharan Africa by describing the major semiotic axes that organize how people talk about condoms and condom use. These axes include the “sweetness” of sex, trust and love between sexual partners, and assessments of risk and danger. Using data from rural Malawi, we show that framing the meaning of condoms as a simple choice between risky behavior and rational attempts to protect one’s health ignores the complex semiotic space that Malawians navigate. Based on data from more than 600 diaries that record rural Malawians’ everyday conversations, our analysis charts the semiotic axes related to condom use. Semiotic constraints operate most powerfully at the level of relationships. Condom use signifies a risky, less serious, and less intimate partner. Even when people believe that condom use is appropriate, wise, or even a matter of life and death, the statement that condom use makes about a relationship usually trumps all other meanings. We call for a more nuanced analysis of culture, one that is attentive to the ways agents navigate multiple, contested meanings, and that demonstrates how specific semiotic axes are brought to bear in particular interactional contexts.
This Article develops the interactional structure of flirtation. Refining Simmel's analysis, I s... more This Article develops the interactional structure of flirtation. Refining Simmel's analysis, I show flirtation as a way in which two time frames are continuously maintained within the same interaction. Rather than moving into a future interaction by using what I term "actualization practices" -- actions which thrust the present interaction into a future -- interactants simultaneously use practices from both time frames, careful not to irrevocably shift the situation. The management of interactional ambiguity in flirtation is then analyzed as a key to examine other ambiguous or "suspended" interactions, where interactants must work to keep different potential future possibilities open.
Back Cover (which is pretty good, except for the "landmark" bit that is a little embarrassing in ... more Back Cover (which is pretty good, except for the "landmark" bit that is a little embarrassing in hindsight):
In Abductive Analysis, Iddo Tavory and Stefan Timmermans provide a new navigational map for theorizing qualitative research. They outline a way to think about observations, methods, and theories that nurtures theory formation without locking it into predefined conceptual boxes. The book provides novel ways to approach the challenges that plague qualitative researchers across the social sciences—how to conceptualize causality, how to manage the variation of observations, and how to leverage the researcher’s community of inquiry. Abductive Analysis is a landmark work that shows how a pragmatist approach provides a productive and fruitful way to conduct qualitative research.
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Papers by Iddo Tavory
Keywords: Resonance, Culture, Pragmatism, Interaction, Cognition, Emotions
in two religious communities, we compare the social-temporal patterning of religious experience among newly religious Orthodox Jews and converted Muslims in two cities in the United States. In both cases, we find that as newly religious people
work to transform their previous bodily habits and take on newly prescribed religious acts, the beginning of their religious careers becomes marked by what practitioners describe as potent religious experiences in situations of religious practice. However,
over time, these once novel practices become routinized and religious experiences in these situations diminish, thus provoking actors and institutions in both fields to work to re-enchant religious life. Through this ethnographic comparison, we demonstrate the utility of focusing on experiential careers as a sociological unit of analysis. Doing so allows sociologists to use a non-reductive phenomenological approach to chart the
shifting manifestations of experiences people deeply care about, along with the patterned enchantments, disenchantments, and possible re-enchantments these social careers entail. As such, this approach contributes to the analysis of social careers and
experiences of “becoming” across both religious and on-religious domains.
employs theory to construct a grammar of social life.
the “practice turn” in sociological theory, we chart the social situations in which solidarity and individuality are formed, and the ways in which their multiple uses frame their meanings. We
demonstrate that though members use the communal arena to express their individuality, the self they celebrate is constantly molded by practices creating solidarity. Through institutionalized rituals, everyday metaphors and interactions, and the formation of friendships in the field, members both relate to the community as a site for the assertion of selfhood, and incorporate the communal into the very definition of the self—thus weaving them together in action.
Keywords: Resonance, Culture, Pragmatism, Interaction, Cognition, Emotions
in two religious communities, we compare the social-temporal patterning of religious experience among newly religious Orthodox Jews and converted Muslims in two cities in the United States. In both cases, we find that as newly religious people
work to transform their previous bodily habits and take on newly prescribed religious acts, the beginning of their religious careers becomes marked by what practitioners describe as potent religious experiences in situations of religious practice. However,
over time, these once novel practices become routinized and religious experiences in these situations diminish, thus provoking actors and institutions in both fields to work to re-enchant religious life. Through this ethnographic comparison, we demonstrate the utility of focusing on experiential careers as a sociological unit of analysis. Doing so allows sociologists to use a non-reductive phenomenological approach to chart the
shifting manifestations of experiences people deeply care about, along with the patterned enchantments, disenchantments, and possible re-enchantments these social careers entail. As such, this approach contributes to the analysis of social careers and
experiences of “becoming” across both religious and on-religious domains.
employs theory to construct a grammar of social life.
the “practice turn” in sociological theory, we chart the social situations in which solidarity and individuality are formed, and the ways in which their multiple uses frame their meanings. We
demonstrate that though members use the communal arena to express their individuality, the self they celebrate is constantly molded by practices creating solidarity. Through institutionalized rituals, everyday metaphors and interactions, and the formation of friendships in the field, members both relate to the community as a site for the assertion of selfhood, and incorporate the communal into the very definition of the self—thus weaving them together in action.
In Abductive Analysis, Iddo Tavory and Stefan Timmermans provide a new navigational map for theorizing qualitative research. They outline a way to think about observations, methods, and theories that nurtures theory formation without locking it into predefined conceptual boxes. The book provides novel ways to approach the challenges that plague qualitative researchers across the social sciences—how to conceptualize causality, how to manage the variation of observations, and how to leverage the researcher’s community of inquiry. Abductive Analysis is a landmark work that shows how a pragmatist approach provides a productive and fruitful way to conduct qualitative research.