From the interpretation of culture to the culture of interpretation: Hans-Georg Soeffner's art of sociological hermeneutics

Thea D. Boldt

Chapter 35 in Handbook of Interpretive Research Methods in the Social Sciences, 2025, pp 538-550 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter discusses thinking and research on the concepts of “culture” and “interpretation,” as both a human capacity and obligation, in the work of one of the most prominent German sociologists, Hans-Georg Soeffner (born 1939), to illustrate the immense potential of the interpretative research tradition. Following a brief introduction, the chapter introduces the fundamental concepts of culture and interpretation in Soeffner's work. It goes on to present the methodological premises of the interpretation of culture in Soeffner's signature method, social science hermeneutics. It then discusses Soeffner's empirical studies and concludes by showing the applicability of Soeffner's way of thinking to a broad spectrum of social questions, highlighting not only its capacity for finding unusual answers but, most importantly, for asking new questions, and, in this way, dislodging what is supposedly taken for granted.

Keywords: Interpretation; Culture; Lifeworld; Language; Symbol; Transcendence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781803926384
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