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The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Sociology

Four ways to measure culture: Social science, hermeneutics, and the cultural turn

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Mohr, JW; Rawlings, C
January 1, 2017

This article considers four of the ways in which measurement practices have been applied to create formal models of culture in the social sciences. It first examines the nature of formal measurement models in the social sciences and compares this mode of scholarship to more hermeneutic styles of research, paying attention to debates over method in the social sciences before and after the cultural turn. It then discusses four different types of formal (measurement) models that have been especially important to the cultural sciences over the last century: pre-cultural turn/non-hermeneutic, pre-cultural turn/hermeneutic, post-cultural turn/non-hermeneutic, and post-cultural turn/hermeneutic. It also cites an exemplar figure for each model, namely, Alfred Kroeber, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Paul DiMaggio, and Harrison White, respectively. Finally, it revisits the problem of how to conceptualize a scientific hermeneutics by comparing the theorization of the practice of data analysis to Paul Ricoeur’s theorization of the practice of text analysis.

Duke Scholars

DOI

ISBN

9780195377767

Publication Date

January 1, 2017

Start / End Page

70 / 113
 

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Mohr, J. W., & Rawlings, C. (2017). Four ways to measure culture: Social science, hermeneutics, and the cultural turn. In The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Sociology (pp. 70–113). https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195377767.013.4
Mohr, J. W., and C. Rawlings. “Four ways to measure culture: Social science, hermeneutics, and the cultural turn.” In The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Sociology, 70–113, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195377767.013.4.
Mohr JW, Rawlings C. Four ways to measure culture: Social science, hermeneutics, and the cultural turn. In: The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Sociology. 2017. p. 70–113.
Mohr, J. W., and C. Rawlings. “Four ways to measure culture: Social science, hermeneutics, and the cultural turn.” The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Sociology, 2017, pp. 70–113. Scopus, doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195377767.013.4.
Mohr JW, Rawlings C. Four ways to measure culture: Social science, hermeneutics, and the cultural turn. The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Sociology. 2017. p. 70–113.
Journal cover image

DOI

ISBN

9780195377767

Publication Date

January 1, 2017

Start / End Page

70 / 113