Social Theory and Human Reality

by Pertti Alasuutari

• ISBN13: 9780761951650
• ISBN10: 0761951652
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-09-23
• Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd

Summary

'This is a smart and compelling book. Difficult ideas are presented in an accessible manner, with plenty of supporting illustrations'¦Students will enjoy the research material and other supporting material. A definite winner!'-Professor Jay Gubrium, University of MissouriThis book gets to the heart of what the social sciences really know about the elusive and contradictory object of research: human reality.Drawing on a wide range of international examples and scenarios, Social Theory and Human Reality examines key sociological concepts that we use to understand human behaviour such as: norms, rules and meanings; language and discourse; ritual; and personality and identity construction.Alasuutari clearly and convincingly demonstrates:- The constant interplay between routines and reflexivity that grounds social order- how the body and our bodily experiences mediate our social reality- that language plays a multi-faceted role as it describes, reflects and constructs human realityBuilding on the work started by Berger and Luckmann in The Social Construction of Reality, this book is a lucid and contemporary analysis of the premises shared across the social sciences, and of the kaleidoscope of 'human reality'.This important book will be welcomed by students and scholars alike in the fields of Cultural Studies, Sociology and Anthropology.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction	1	(29)
Human Intellect and Adaptability	4	(2)
Toward a Social Theory of Human Reality	6	(7)
The Constructed Nature of Human Reality	13	(1)
The Interplay of Routines and Reflexivity	14	(11)
What is Reflexivity?	25	(3)
The Structure of the Book	28	(2)
2 Norms and Rules	30	(23)
The Meaning of Moral Rules: A Case Example	31	(2)
What is Wrong with Control Theory?	33	(4)
Regulative and Constitutive Rules	37	(2)
Rules as Reflexive Resources	39	(4)
Norms as Part of Discourse	43	(7)
The Emergence of Norms in Social Change	43	(2)
Norms and Ethnicity	45	(1)
Norms and Morality	46	(1)
Norms in Everyday Interaction	47	(3)
Norms and Social Order	50	(3)
3 Language	53	(24)
Language and Reality: The Natural Attitude	55	(1)
Language as a System of Its Own	56	(5)
Saussure's Theory	56	(2)
Language and Reality in the Structuralist View	58	(3)
Language Use as Practice	61	(3)
Toward an Integrative Theory of Meaning Construction	64	(4)
The Discursive and the Non-Discursive	68	(6)
The Foucauldian Perspective	69	(1)
What is Non-Discursive?	70	(2)
Evoking the Unthought	72	(2)
The Persistence of the Mundane Notion of Language	74	(3)
4 Conversations	77	(16)
Conversation as a Game	78	(3)
Literal and Commonsensical Meaning	81	(1)
Bracketing Contents and Suppressing Agency	81	(2)
Building on and Updating Shared Assumptions	83	(3)
Institutional Interaction and Power Relations	86	(2)
Conclusion	88	(5)
5 Rituals	93	(12)
What is a Ritual?	95	(1)
Cognition and Emotion in Rituals	96	(4)
Hierarchies and Solidarity	100	(1)
Ritual as a Train	101	(2)
Why Do We Have Rituals?	103	(2)
6 Personality: The Case of Modernity	105	(16)
The Formation of the Individual and the Inner Self	107	(3)
Life-Stories and Biographical Reasoning	110	(2)
The Cultural Premises of Self	112	(3)
Rescuing the Split Character: The 'Freudian' Narrative	115	(1)
A Case Example in Personality Construction	116	(2)
Biographical Narration and Self	118	(3)
7 Identity	121	(19)
Subject Position	123	(4)
Justifications and Legitimations	127	(4)
Coping Strategies	131	(4)
Group Consciousness	135	(2)
Conclusion	137	(3)
8 The Modernization Story as a Reflexive Frame	140	(19)
The History of the Story of Modernization	142	(2)
The Historicist Method	144	(3)
The Main Assumptions of the Modernization Discourse	147	(7)
The Crisis of the Sacred	148	(4)
Increasing Reflexivity	152	(2)
Conclusion	154	(5)
9 The Enigma of Human Reality	159	(10)
The Inherent Tensions in Human Reality	163	(2)
The Sociology and Ethics of Scientific Knowledge	165	(2)
Toward More Reflexive Human Science	167	(2)
References	169	(10)
Index	179