Social Causation and Biographical Research by Giorgos Tsiolis Michalis Christodoulou

Author:Giorgos Tsiolis, Michalis Christodoulou [Giorgos Tsiolis, Michalis Christodoulou]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9781000260731
Google: n1YAEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2020-11-09T04:24:09+00:00

An example of typological theorizing

The example comes from Monika Wohlrab-Sahr’s “Converting to Islam in Germany and USA” (1999), in which the conversion processes that take place in these two countries are investigated. Transcribed biographical interviews with men and women converts (19 from Germany and 23 from the United States) and field notes taken by the researcher from attending Muslim rituals and places of worship constitute her main research material. Some of the research questions are the following: What is the function of religious conversion within the context of converts’ biographies? To what biographically rooted problems does conversion constitute a solution? What are the elements of Islam that are appropriate for dealing with typical biographical problems? Why do people socialized in Western values search for solutions connected with non-Western religions? By reconstructing various biographical cases, Wohlrab-Sahr’s aim is to trace the typical structures of becoming a convert in cases where it is regarded as the best solution to problems triggered by biographical developments. A biographical function is not identified through the personal motives and explanations provided by the converts themselves, but rather traced through the biographical cases’ latent meaning structure (LMS). In addition, the word “function” is not used to denote a causal relation between conversion and decision making but how what is at stake concerns how the decision to convert is the outcome of previously sequential biographical decisions and their consequences. The uncovering of LMS is supported by Luhman’s term “functional equivalents”, defined as the various possibilities available as equivalent solutions for dealing with the same problem.

Wohlrab-Sahr starts by analyzing the biographical material with the aim of uncovering the LMS shaping this specific case. Reconstructing the case’s structure provides an explanatory framework for understanding the biographical function of converting or, in other words, for understanding the function conversion plays as a problem-solving mechanism in the face of peculiar biographical situations. After analyzing each biography, she constructs a typology by using the operations of contextualizing and of abstraction. On the one hand, the range of abstraction is gradually increasing so that each type covers as many biographies as possible and on the other, the researcher narrows her thematic focus to the biographical function of conversion. The transition from the level of case structure to the level of constructing types is enabled through the use of theoretical concepts that provide the researcher with the thematic frameworks for expanding the range of abstraction, as they constitute the axes for reconstructing individual cases, for type delimitation and for comparing types. Wohlrab-Sahr constructs types through the following four axes:

“The reference problem”, concerning the problem for which conversion functions as a solution;

“The structure of problem solving”, concerning the peculiar characteristics of problem solving;

“The importance of the environment”, concerning the role of the environment (“significant others”) in shaping conversion;

“The context of the religion”, concerning the aspects of Islam described that by means of conversion are highlighted as a way to solve biographically embedded problems.

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