Welcome to the Interpretive Methodologies and Methods (IMM) Webpage

A message to current members of the American Political Science Association: To maintain and grow our APSA ‘related group’ status, we invite you to formally join the IMM as a member. There is no extra cost (beyond the the cost of APSA membership), so please consider doing so. Here is the link. Thanks!

The American Political Science Association’s (APSA) Interpretive Methodologies and Methods (IMM) related group provides a forum for the discussion of methodologies and methods related to empirical interpretive research, as well as issues arising from their location within contemporary political science.

Interpretive methodologies and methods are informed by philosophical traditions such as hermeneutics, phenomenology, pragmatism, symbolic interaction, and critical theory. Notwithstanding their differences, these traditions presuppose that the meaningfulness and historical contingency of human life sets the social realm apart from the natural and physical worlds, when it comes to research. Although diverse in their modes of generating and analyzing data, research processes in the interpretive tradition are typically characterized by an empirical and normative prioritizing of the lived experience of people in research settings, including the documentary and visual tracings and heritage of these (what Clifford Geertz referred to as “experience-near” research), a focus on the meaning(s) of acts, events, interactions, language, and physical artifacts to multiple stakeholders, and a sensitivity to the historically contingent, often contested character of such meanings.

The IMM officers are listed on the People page. The IMM Spotlight Scholars page showcases the work of interpretivist researchers. Other pages contain APSA conference-related announcements, including the archive of annual IMM @ APSA Calls for Papers, conference program listings, business meeting agendas, Short Course listings, and awards made by the group. Below is a link to a history of how the group came into existence.

The IMM group is international in its reach, and the webpage extends beyond APSA to include course syllabi, research and resources, other IMM-related notices, and job opportunities.

To read about the origins and development of IMM, please see: IMM Beginnings (pdf).

To join our Facebook group (open to anyone), just click “Join Group” and tell us a little about yourself.

You can also follow us on Twitter.

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