📘 Comparative Table: Theoretical Debate | Notion

Here's a Notion-compatible comparative table and analysis of the theoretical debates between:

Postmodernism
Phenomenology
Ethnomethodology
Symbolic Interactionism
Weber’s Interpretative Sociology

We can classify them broadly under micro sociological traditions, but each differs in assumptions, focus, and philosophical orientation.

📘 Comparative Table: Theoretical Debate

Category	Postmodernism	Phenomenology	Ethnomethodology	Symbolic Interactionism	Weber’s Interpretative Sociology
Epistemology	Relativist, anti-foundational	Idealist, subjectivist	Radical empirical	Pragmatist, interaction-based	Verstehen (interpretive)
Ontology	Anti-essentialist; reality is fragmented, decentered	Reality is what appears in consciousness	Reality is constructed through routine practices	Social reality emerges through interaction	Social action is shaped by subjective meaning
Core Focus	Deconstruction of meta-narratives; fluid identities	Consciousness, intentionality of meaning	How order is produced through everyday talk and routines	Self, symbols, and role-taking in micro-interactions	Subjective meaning of action and its causal explanation
Role of Language	Language shapes reality but is unstable	Medium to express lived experience	Tool to sustain intersubjective reality	Vehicle of meaning-making	Medium to understand actors’ meaning
View on Society	Pluralistic, no grand theory possible	Based on lived experience, not objective structures	Society is a reflexive ongoing accomplishment	Ongoing process of interpretation	Structured but understood through meaning
Critique of Modernity	Total rejection (meta-narratives, progress, etc.)	Neutral; focuses on consciousness not epochs	Ignores macro-modern structures	Acknowledges but focuses on everyday meanings	Critical of positivism, but accepts rationality
Approach to Theory	Denial of universal theory (anti-theory stance)	Descriptive, not explanatory	Anti-theory, descriptive micro-analysis	Mid-range theory of interactions	Methodological individualism
Agency vs Structure	Extreme agency or decentered subject	Emphasizes individual consciousness	Emphasizes practical agency	Strong emphasis on agency	Individuals act within cultural contexts
Major Thinkers	Lyotard, Baudrillard, Foucault	Husserl, Schutz	Garfinkel	Mead, Blumer, Goffman	Max Weber
Methodology	Discourse analysis, deconstruction	First-person description	Conversation analysis, breaching experiments	Participant observation, qualitative interviews	Ideal types, historical analysis

🔍 Theoretical Debates & Key Points

1. Postmodernism vs Phenomenology

Postmodernism critiques even the phenomenological assumption that meaning can be described or accessed clearly. For postmodernists, meaning is always unstable and deferred (Derrida).
Phenomenology assumes that we can study the essences of lived experience; postmodernism denies such stability.

2. Postmodernism vs Ethnomethodology

Both reject structuralism, but ethnomethodology focuses on empirical micro-practices.
Postmodernists offer philosophical critique, while ethnomethodologists stay with the mundane and observable (e.g., phone calls, queues).

3. Postmodernism vs Symbolic Interactionism

Symbolic interactionism believes stable meaning emerges through interaction, while postmodernism argues meaning is always contested and fluid.