Communitarianism as a Method of Analysis: An Effort for Localization in Social Sciences

The present article tries to study communitarianism as one of the important normative approaches in social science, and present its methodological components in the explanation of political and social developments. However, the question is: what are the concepts and methodological principles of communitarianism in the views of Alasdair MacIntyre? Communitarians select tradition instead of discourse and study five steps of rise, rationality, dialog, crisis and revival of thinking traditions. They are the constructivists of methodological domain. Their analysis is not at macro or micro level, but at local level. Contextual rationality and locality are very important for them. In sociological area, they put emphasis on communities and seek politics in them. Their rise is the result of the gradual fall of mobilizing ideologies such as the left and liberal in the political area, the decline of proletarian movements, the process of depoliticization of Europeans countries and the decline of the Green Party, the supporters of the environment, and the feminist movements. It seems that using this methodology instead of positivistic and hermeneutic approaches can help us develop a local approach for our perception of policymaking in the plural society of Iran and it can be used as an interdisciplinary theory for the humanities.