The present work resumes Karl Mannheim's contribution to the construction of an interpretive research method. It discusses methodological reflections and the development of a method of analysis of worldviews called documentary method of interpretation. Ethnomethodology was the first theoretical-methodological line of thought to recognize the importance of Karl Mannheim's documentary method of interpretation for the analysis of quantitative data. In Germany, sociologist Ralf Bohnsack resumed and updated the documentary method both from the point of view of method and methodology, turning it into a tool to analyze individual and group interviews, images, photographs, and documents. The documentary method as theory and practice of sociological interpretation can be seen as an instrument that allows to place the researcher in unknown social contexts, understanding and conceptualizing worldviews or collective orientations of a group as well as its actions and ways of representations. Therefore, the documentary method transcends the level of intuitive or deductive analysis and instigates the construction of analytical instruments able to map and shape everyday experiences, which lack theoretical reflection.
Karl Mannheim; Qualitative research; Documentary method of interpretation; Analysis of interviews
