Theorizing in Qualitative Research: A Cultural Studies Perspective

This article discusses the interplay between empirical research and theory in constructionist or cultural studies qualitative research. In cultural studies, theories are seen as different frameworks, not as universal theories about social mechanisms. That is why instead of generalizing understandings, cultural studies and other constructionist approaches aim to particularize understandings of the social. The latter implicates the local, while the former indirectly aims to obviate the local. Instead of assuming that any corner of social reality leads to the traces of some universals to be pointed out in the final analysis, in cultural studies a case study is understood to reveal a local and historically specific cultural or "bounded" system. Because more generally applicable theories are seen differently in this framework, theorizing also assumes another form, which is discussed in the light of concrete examples from the author's own fieldwork.