The Documentary Method (DokuMeth) understands the social world as composed of practices. Therefore, when developing the method, Ralf Bohnsack did not consider individuals’ conscious choices, such as whether to continue their education or start a job. Instead, he aligned with ideas from Karl Mannheim and Pierre Bourdieu, who argued that people are embedded in social locations: a generation, a gender, a class. Multiple social locations shape how people approach the world through their habits and knowledge of social norms.
When using the Documentary Method, we will not ask respondents why they chose to start a job. Instead, we will ask them to tell us more about their lives in as much detail as possible. DokuMeth analysts focus in depth on how people say and do things, rather than on what they say. For example, when researching discrimination, interviewees may say that they never experienced discrimination. But if we compare two stories of how a respondent found housing or a job, exposure to discrimination will make a difference. Some stories will include specific experiences of unexplained rejection and strategies of overcoming barriers that are not found in contrasting stories. The DokuMeth uses these differences and sampling strategies that zoom in on them to link types of orientations to social location (e.g., class, gender, generation, race, etc.). Results are mostly presented as typologies, but also as comparative case studies.
The blocked seminar will introduce you to the method with a focus on practising it yourselves. This means you will need to attend in person, except for the hybrid introduction on Friday, Oct 16th. 2026. Please plan to spend time during the semester to prepare exercises. This will enable you to learn the method step-by-step and receive individual feedback on every step. These steps will form part of the research paper that is due on Feb 15th 2027.
You can use your own interview material, but I will also provide anonymised material for those who have not started their own fieldwork yet. I know German, but the course will be taught in English. As we will share and discuss your interpretations, you should ideally use English-language material for your exemplary analyses.
Anja Weiß has taught numerous methods courses at all skill levels. She has used DokuMeth extensively and is currently pushing the method's frontiers by using KARL AI (https://dokumet.de/).
I am currently writing an English-language introductory book with Nohl, which will be provided as a reader. For other English-language introductory texts, see Bohnsack (2014); Nohl (2010; 2024). For a German-language introduction, see Nohl (2017). A 160-page list of all publications using the method can be found here: https://www.hsu-hh.de/systpaed/dokumentarische-methode. For an elaborate example of this methodology in migration research, see Nohl et al. (2014) and Nohl & Somel (2015).
References
Bohnsack, R (2014). "Documentary Method." In: Flick, U (ed.). SAGE Handbook of Analyzing Qualitative Data. Thousand Oaks, London, New Delhi, pp. 217-233.
Nohl, A-M (2010). "Narrative interview and documentary method." In: Bohnsack, R, et al. (ed.). Qualitative Research and Documentary Method in Educational Science - Results from Brazilian-German Cooperation. Opladen, pp. 195-217, http://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/handle/document/31725/ssoar-2010-bohnsack_et_al-Qualitative_analysis_and_documentary_method.pdf?sequence=1.
Nohl, A-M (2017). Interview und dokumentarische Methode. Anleitungen für die Forschungspraxis. Wiesbaden.
Nohl, A-M (2024). "Hidden Contexts, Multilevel Comparisons, and the Postcolonial Location: Reconsidering the Documentary Method Vis-à-Vis Decolonization." Qualitative Inquiry 32(3-4) 267-278, 10.1177/10778004241302298, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/10778004241302298.
Nohl, A-M et al. (2014). Work in Transition. Cultural Capital and Highly Skilled Migrants' Passages into the Labour Market. Toronto, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/j.ctt1287rpf.
Nohl, A-M/ Somel, RN (2015). Education and social dynamics: a multilevel analysis of curriculum change in Turkey. New York; London. |
