Sociología política de las elites. Apuntes sobre su abordaje a través de entrevistas

AUTOR(ES)
FONTE

Rev. Sociol. Polit.

DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2014-12

RESUMO

This article examines the challenges and potential of the historical and qualitative approach of political elites, particularly through in-depth interviews. We point out some questions for which this methodology is particularly relevant and we reconstruct the main challenges entailed by the fieldwork among leading sectors. The article is based on a research of the elites of the Interior Ministry in Argentina since 1983 that triangulates different types of sources: interviews, archives, formal regulations, national press and specialized literature. Instead of taking for granted the effectiveness of interviews in general and abstract terms, we analyze the scope and limits of this source of inquiry to rebuild political socialization, paths and practices of political elites. Furthermore, we reconstruct some of the recurrent obstacles in fieldwork -including accessibility, temporality and the presence of "official" or prefabricated speeches- as well as the ways to overcome them. In particular, we argue that this methodological strategy is fruitful for: a) tracing "entries in policy" and reconstructing trajectories of agents in a densely and contextualized way; b) identifying valued knowledge, shared codes and symbolic boundaries that impact on the political field; and c) reconstructing practices, decisions and dilemmas when it is impossible to "follow the agents". In that sense, this article discusses both with the literature on qualitative methodologies and with the one on political elites. It aims, on the one hand, to provide clues and resources to researchers working with interviews; and, on the other, to remind that the ruling elites "matter" and are not interchangeable, that they do not respond to a universal and disembodied rationality but draw forms of action that are complex and historically situated.

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