Up for Interpretation? Reflections on Methods, Concepts, and Policies

Session Submission Type: Created Panel

Session Description

This panel assembles papers that approach the practice of political science and the study of politics and policy from a critical perspective. Merging insights from interpretive methodologies and critical policy studies the panel encompasses five papers, each of which problematizes its specific topic of focus in ways of relevance and import to the wider discipline. From interrogating concepts such as state failure to evaluating methods for studying sex work or collecting data at-a-distance, from unpacking policy-makers' prioritizations of disease management over eradication to calls for a political science that engenders political change, this panel spotlights the many important ways interpretive and critical sensibilities can enhance the study of states and the societies that inhabit them.

Sub Unit

• Related Groups / Interpretive Methodologies & Methods

Cosponsor

• Division 42: Critical Political Science (formerly New Political Science)

Individual Presentations

• Disrupting American Politics: Interpretive Research and Egalitarian Movements - Michael David Forrest, Oberlin College

• Research through Others and Online - Aarie Glas, Northern Illinois University; Alesha Porisky, Northern Illinois University

• The Political Utility of "State Failure" in South Africa - Carolyn Ethel Holmes, University of Tennessee

• Human Rights and Research Ethics: Methods for Sex Work Scholarship - Erica MacDonald Laplante, University of Connecticut

• No More Cures: The Rise of Health Management over Disease Eradication - J. Ricky Price, St. John Fisher College

Chair

• Lisel S. Hintz Johns Hopkins University SAIS

Discussants

• Yuna Blajer de la Garza Loyola University, Chicago

• Daniel T. Kirsch Northern Virginia Community College