Sociological Methods of Studying Silence

This paper is devoted to the methods of studying silence as a social phenomenon. As a research object, it is characterised by a high degree of uncertainty, multiple interpretations and even mystifications. Therefore, in order to transfer the issue of silence from abstract discussions to scientific empirical study, it is necessary to determine the relevant methods for its study. This, in turn, is fundamental for overcoming the "uncertainty" that culture imposes on the practices of silence. One of the ways to overcome this is the micro-structural sociological approach to understanding silence as an element of the situation, that is studied in this article. The paper substantiates the relevance of the qualitative strategy for studying silence, analyses the cognitive potential of participant and non-participant observation, interviews, document analysis and conversational analysis in the study of silence. Silence is understood by the author as a fundamentally audible and observable phenomenon. Thus, the methodological analysis conducted in the work, in a broad sense, applies not only to silence, but also to all cultural phenomena that can be “translated” into the language of spatio-temporal certainty and studied as such.
From this understanding of the research object, a set of basic methods for studying silence as a micro-structural phenomenon is constructed. Observation based on understanding the meaning is a key research method. It works with the structure of the situation directly, without influencing it. The methods of interviews and document analysis are additional, but often necessary, due to insufficient access to direct observation by the researcher, as well as due to limit research subjectivity and supplement of information obtained only through personal participation. The methods of conversation analysis and ethnomethodological experiment also prove to be very valuable in solving the above research problems, however, they have more specific functions. Conversation analysis is focused on working with audible and observed silence, on creating an audio (video) recording and a transcript showing the structural arrangement of silence and pauses. The convenience of using this method is limited to the analysis of relatively short-term interaction, such as everyday conversation. Whilst the experiment influences the situation, transforms it, but allows us to find objective and subjective zones of the situation, where silence or its absence are significant elements of the situation.

sociology, silence, interaction situation structure, qualitative strategy, sociology of everyday life, observation, convergent analysis