The Third Party Standpoint, Postmodernism, and the Study of Social Transactions

The development of generic principles is advocated as the goal of sociology. Recent postmodern concerns with particularistic and local explanations are compared with the New Iowa School's commitment to uncovering generic forms of social life. While postmodern theorists such as Denzin, Ellis, Richardson, and Seidman advocate an epistemic approach that denies an interest in the development of generic principles, their analyses belie this epistemic commitment. The New Iowa School advocates the development of generic principles of social life and offers a methodological standpoint to achieve this goal—the third party standpoint.