ABSTRACT
This chapter is an exposition on issues which need to be considered by way of general background to understanding the interpretivist paradigm and the place of the symbolic interactionist theoretical position within it. The chapter opens by detailing some basic foundation principles of interpretivism. A brief historical account of interpretivism as it unfolded in the form of symbolic interactionism is then outlined. Thirdly, the chapter provides an exposition on the concept of ‘perspectives’, a central concept within symbolic interactionism. Finally, three important distinctions which many tend to blur in developing eclectic approaches to interpretivist research of the sort discouraged in the previous chapter are clarifi ed: the distinction between behaviour and action; the distinction between ‘perspectives’ and ‘perceptions’, and the distinction between ‘perspectives’ and ‘attitudes’.
