Sensitizing Concepts in Action: Expanding the Framework

Abstract

The relationship between data and social reality is considered a common methodological problem in social research independent of research strategy (Blaikie, 2000: 120). Most researchers recognize that data are produced by the activities of social researchers on a certain version of social reality. Nevertheless, there is little consensus among scholars regarding what the solution to this challenge should be. Some scholars argue for placing greater weight on lay terms to develop a deeper understanding of laypeople. For others, this appears naïve. They argue that researchers must and should interpret the world according to theories and concepts.<p>

<p>Certain scholars argue that because social reality has no independent existence apart from the knowledge held by the social actors, researchers’ way of gaining access to this knowledge is to enmesh themselves as deeply as possible in the everyday world of the actors. Thus, researchers can access laypeople’s understandings and interpretation. Others find this view to be overly optimistic and hold a different view of the relationship between language and reality. For still others, the task of sociological theory is to remain critical and the researcher’s role is to unveil hidden forms of oppression and power.<p>

<p>Nevertheless, despite all of the scholarly debate regarding observation as theory dependent, the following dilemma remains: how do empirical researchers obtain the right balance? Using intersectionality as an example, I will argue for understanding sensitizing concepts as a methodology for striking this balance. Since the 1990s, gender, queer and postcolonial studies have given intersectionality many roles—so many, in fact, that it has been called feminist theory’s buzzword. As a fuzzy and contested concept, intersectionality is well suited for discussing the role of theories and concepts in social research.<p>

<p>To approach research through a sensitizing concept is sociology’s tool to facilitate a position in which one can perceive something new. It allows empirical researchers to start with a concept to provide direction and to develop theoretical/analytical tools in close dialogue with data. Despite this potential, I will argue for the need to expand sensitizing concepts beyond the interactionist framework.