Joseph R. Gusfield

Performing Action (eBook, PDF)

Artistry in Human Behavior and Social Research

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

In recent years the social sciences and the humanities have drawn closer to each other in thought and method. This rapprochement has led to new perceptions of human behavior by sociologists, as well as new methodological orientations. Sociologist Joseph R. Gusfield draws upon drama and fiction to show how human action is shaped by the formal dimensions of performance.

Gusfield first defines the concept of behavior as artistic performance. He then analyzes routine and classic social research reports as literary performances in qualitative and quantitative terms. Next he moves to social movements and public actions, demonstrating how objects and events are products of the interpretation and reflection of individuals. He draws upon literary and artistic conventions to deal with issues of representation and meaning. In the first and last chapters, Gusfield provides a conceptual summary examining the relation between sociology as science and art, arguing that sociological methods are neither science nor art, but partake of both.

Following the philosopher Paul Ricouer, Gusfield shows how human behavior can be read as a text, always telling the participant or observer "something about something." Performing Action will be of interest to sociologists, psychologists, and students of aesthetics and critical theory.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Taylor & Francis
• Seitenzahl: 350
• Erscheinungstermin: 8. September 2017
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781351500296
• Artikelnr.: 49262413

Autorenporträt

Joseph R. Gusfield

Inhaltsangabe

1. Introduction: Human Behavior as Performance Part 1: Rhetoric 2. The
Double Plot in Institutions 3. The Literary Rhetoric of Science: Comedy and
Pathos in Drinking-Driver Research 4. Two Genres of Sociology: A Literary
Analysis of The American Occupational Structure and Tally's Corner 5. Sport
as Story: Form and Content in Agonistic Games Part 2: Reflexivity 6. The
Modernity of Social Movements: Public Roles and Private Parts 7. Social
Movements and Social Change: Perspectives of Linearity and Fluidity 8. The
Reflexivity of Social Movements: Collective Behavior and Mass Society
Theory Revisited 9. The Social Construction of Tradition: An Interactionist
View of Social Change Part 3: Symbolism 10. Secular Symbolism: Studies of
Ritual, Ceremony, and the Symbolic Order in Modern Life 11. Nature's Body
and the Metaphors of Food and Health 12. The Social Symbolism of Smoking
and Health 13. The Social Meanings of Meals: Hierarchy and Equality in the
American Potluck 14. Conclusion: Buddy, Can You Paradigm?: The Crisis of
Theory in the Welfare State Index