Modernity and Social Theory SO3523

Phenomenology, Social Constructionism & Modernity

Modernity and Social Theory SO3523

• Phenomenology & Social Constructionism• Major Figures:

• Edmund Husserl• Maurice Merleau-Ponty• Alfred Schutz• Peter Berger & Thomas Luckman

• Cognitivist ‘Revolution’

Modernity and Social Theory SO3523

• Reality only exists in the ongoing stream of sensory experience to which we allocate to discrete categories.

• ‘Stream of Consciousness’

• ‘Intentionality’• ‘Bracketing’• ‘The Natural Attitude’ Edmund Husserl

1859 - 1938

Modernity and Social Theory SO3523

• Challenged the privileging of the mind with respect to conscious experience

• Embodied Consciousness

• Body/SubjectMaurice Merleau-Ponty Maurice Merleau-Ponty

(1908 -1961)(1908 -1961)

Modernity and Social Theory SO3523

• Phenomenal Sociology

Alfred SchutzAlfred Schutz (1899 – 1959)(1899 – 1959)

Modernity and Social Theory SO3523

• First Order Categories (Common Sense) – The recurrent elements in the stream of consciousness

• Typifications: Ideal Typical Concepts

• Recipes & Formulas: Taken for granted procedures for accomplishing everyday tasks.

Modernity and Social Theory SO3523

• Schutz’s interaction order:• ‘Consociates’: Share the same time and space• ‘Contemporaries’: Share the same time• ‘Predecessors’ and ‘Successors’: ‘Ideal Types’ with whom we

engage through letters and reports

• Lebenswelt: The Lifeworld

• Second Order Categories: Sociology’s task is to develop second order concepts that allow to explore and understand the first order concepts that people in society employ, including their origins and effects.

Modernity and Social Theory SO3523

‘The Social Construction of Reality’

Berger & Luckmann (1966)

• Human Nature, Plasticity & ‘Homo Socius’

• Realissimum and zones of closeness and remoteness

• The Natural Attitude and Shared Common Sense Knowledge (objectifications)

• Social interaction

Modernity and Social Theory SO3523

• Institutionalization:

• Externalization: Action

• Objectification: Viewing the products of action as being objectively ‘real’ (reification?)

• Internalization: Subjective assimilation of the ‘taken for granted’ reality

Modernity and Social Theory SO3523

• Objective Reality: The institutionalized typifications that are shared by social actors over time

• Subjective Reality: The internalised social reality

• Primary Socialization: Becoming a member of Society – version of Paramount reality ‘filtered’ through parents and others.

• Secondary Socialization: Induction into ‘new’ sectors of the objective social world.

Modernity and Social Theory SO3523

The Thomas TheoremThe Thomas Theorem

“if men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences” (Thomas & Thomas 1928:572).

WI Thomas

(1863-1947)

Modernity and Social Theory SO3523

• ‘The Homeless Mind’: Berger, Berger & Kellner (1973)

• Technology

• Bureaucracy

• Modern Consciousness

• Modernization & Resistance

Modernity and Social Theory SO3523

• Technological Consciousness:

• Componentiality (reality experienced as atomistic units)• Interdependence (units form interdependent sequences)• Implicit Abstraction (everything can be understood with

reference to abstract frameworks - even humans)• Segregation (of institutions, home & work etc.)• Emotional Management (emotion permitted within some

spheres and excluded from others)• Anonymous Social Relations & ‘Human Engineering’

(individuals defined as functionaries)

Modernity and Social Theory SO3523

• Bureaucracy & Consciousness

• Competence & Coverage (very detailed and restricted areas of expertise – but everything can be dealt with somewhere in the all-encompassing bureaucracy)

• Orderliness (overarching cognitive style of bureaucrat – everything can be organized and order imposed)

• Assumption of Predictability• Impression Management (stylised modes of interaction)

Modernity and Social Theory SO3523

• Modern Consciousness & The Pluralization of Lifeworlds:

• Individuation & Reflexivity (peculiarly separated from others due to the multiplicity of ‘life plan’ options and experiences)

• Homelessness (an absence of firm roots and belonging)• Modernity & Its Discontents (secularization, meaninglessness,

contradiction, discrepancy, abstraction, alienation)• Collisions of Consciousness (cultural clashes)• Counter-Culture (nature, feeling, simplification, realissimum,

total life experiences, authenticity, spontaneity)• Limitations of Resistance