Against essentialism : a theory of culture and society / Stephan Fuchs.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fuchs, Stephan, 1958-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Culture.

Social groups.

Social structure.

Physical Description:

ix, 380 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2001.

Summary:

Against Essentialism presents a sociological theory of culture. This interdisciplinary and foundational work deals with basic issues common to current debates in social theory, including society, culture, meaning, truth, and communication. Stephan Fuchs argues that many mysteries about these concepts lose their mysteriousness when dynamic variations are introduced.

Fuchs proposes a theory of culture and society that merges two core traditions -- American network theory and European (Luhmannian) systems theory. His book distinguishes four major types of social "observers" -- encounters, groups, organizations, and networks. Society takes place in these four modes of association. Each generates levels of observation linked with each other into a "culture" -- the unity of these observations.

Against Essentialism presents a groundbreaking new approach to the construction of society, culture, and personhood. The book invites both social scientists and philosophers to see what happens when essentialism is abandoned.

Contents:

1 Theory after Essentialism 12

Accounting for the Observer 17

Observing Observers 20

Levels of Observing 24

Ideological Conflicts in Observation 29

Inside and Outside Observers 35

Value-Freedom and Disinterestedness 40

The Myth of "Going Native" 43

A Few Pretty Old Rules of Method 47

The Classics Revisited, Briefly 58

Networks and Systems 63

Some Elements of a Working Epistemology 67

2 How to Sociologize with a Hammer 71

The Crisis of Representation 71

Underdetermination and Theory-Ladenness 74

The Indeterminacy of Translation 78

Empiricizing Contexts and Demarcations 84

Incommensurability 92

The Double Hermeneutic 95

Things and Persons 104

3 Cultural Rationality 111

After Reason 115

Causes and Reasons 116

The Unity of Persons 119

What Do Persons Want and Believe? 123

Decisions, Decisions 127

How to Locate Rationality 131

Some Covariates of Rationality 132

4 Foundations of Culture 138

Never Minds 139

Who Knows? No Idea! 147

The Meanings of Meaning 150

Observing Culture and Cultural Observers 151

What Is in a Culture? 155

Cultural Stratification 159

Art 165

Reputation 185

From Creativity to Genius 187

5 Modes of Social Association I: Encounters, Groups, and Organizations 191

The Bodies and Brains of Persons 193

Emotional Selves 197

Levels of Society 199

Encounters 203

Groups 211

Organizations 224

Variations in Organizational Cultures 244

6 Modes of Social Association II: Networks 251

Drift 254

Fields of Forces 256

Power to the Networks 259

Metabolism 263

Renormalization 266

Autopoiesis 270

Self-Similarity 272

Unity 275

Boundaries 276

Network Expansions 278

Networks of Culture 280

7 Realism Explained 293

A Continuum of Realism 298

Core Expansions and Time 301

Machines 304

Instruction 308

Density 309

Monopoly and Hegemony 311

Competition and Decentralization 314

Literacy and Printing 317

Orality, Perception, and Copresence 322

Consensus 326

Distance and Frontstages 329

Appendix Theses 337.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 341-365) and index.

ISBN:

0674006100

OCLC:

48132049