HOW TO MODEL SENSE MAKING A Contribution for the Development of a Methodological Framework for the Analysis of Meaning

The purpose of this work is to contribute to the development of the methodology for analysing meaning and sense making. To this end, the authors present preliminarily a dynamic, contextual and dialogical model of meaning, entailing an ostensible as well as a latent dimension—the significance in praesentia and the significance in absentia. Some basic methodological tenets are drawn from the model, related to what analysing sense making means and how such a task could be performed. Accordingly, two complementary methodological lines of inquiry are discussed: structural and dynamic analysis. For each of them an example is provided, in order to show how each of them works and what it performs. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the development of the methodology of meaning and sense making analysis. To this end, in the following pages we present a basic, general model of meaning and sense making, stating some basic methodological tenets concerning what analysing sense making means and how such a task could be performed. Needless to say, such tenets are far from being exhaustive. Our aim is not to provide a repertoire of technical devices and procedures; rather, our contribution must be seen as a way of emphasizing the need to ground the methodological discourse on a firm theoretical basis.