The social sciences have always grappled, in one way or another, with the problem of humans studying humans.
Particularly pressing in this regard has been the use of theories to explain, elaborate on, answer questions about, or criticize various practices, institutions, organizations, that persons under study engage in.
Reframing sociology as part of the project of the human sciences, and elaborating on a distinction between minimal and maximal interpretation, this talk will suggest some ways for thinking about theory, truth, over- and underinterpretation in the human sciences.
About the speaker
Isaac A. Reed is Thomas C. Sorenson Professor of Political and Social Thought and Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia. He is a historical and cultural sociologist with particular interests in the philosophy of social science, the historical origins of American modernity and the development of the American state, and the social theory of power.
In 2015 he received the Lewis Coser Award for Theoretical Agenda Setting in Sociology, and his book "Interpretation and Social Knowledge: On the use of theory in the human sciences" (University of Chicago Press, 2011) received honorable mention from two American Sociological Association sections (Theory and Culture).
More details
The lecture will be commented on by Erik Børve Rasmussen, Professor in Sociology at the Department of Social Work, Child Welfare and Social Policy, OsloMet.
The event is organized in collaboration between the Norwegian Microsociological Network and the Qualitative Research Forum, hosted by OsloMet’s Centre for the Study of Professions.
The lecture will be recorded but not streamed, with the recording to be made available online at a later date.
