The Constitution of Social Practices

The Constitution of Social Practices PDF Author: Kevin McMillan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135171774X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
Practices – specific, recurrent types of human action and activity – are perhaps the most fundamental "building blocks" of social reality. This book argues that the detailed empirical study of practices is essential to effective social-scientific inquiry. It develops a philosophical infrastructure for understanding human practices, and argues that practice theory should be the analytical centrepiece of social theory and the philosophy of the social sciences. What would social scientists’ research look like if they took these insights seriously? To answer this question, the book offers an analytical framework to guide empirical research on practices in different times and places. The author explores how practices can be identified, characterised and explained, how they function in concrete contexts and how they might change over time and space. The Constitution of Social Practices lies at the intersection of philosophy, social theory, cultural theory and the social sciences. It is essential reading for scholars in social theory and the philosophy of social science, as well as the broad range of researchers and students across the social sciences and humanities whose work stands to benefit from serious consideration of practices.

The Constitution of Social Practices

The Constitution of Social Practices PDF Author: Kevin McMillan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135171774X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 209

Get Book Here

Book Description
Practices – specific, recurrent types of human action and activity – are perhaps the most fundamental "building blocks" of social reality. This book argues that the detailed empirical study of practices is essential to effective social-scientific inquiry. It develops a philosophical infrastructure for understanding human practices, and argues that practice theory should be the analytical centrepiece of social theory and the philosophy of the social sciences. What would social scientists’ research look like if they took these insights seriously? To answer this question, the book offers an analytical framework to guide empirical research on practices in different times and places. The author explores how practices can be identified, characterised and explained, how they function in concrete contexts and how they might change over time and space. The Constitution of Social Practices lies at the intersection of philosophy, social theory, cultural theory and the social sciences. It is essential reading for scholars in social theory and the philosophy of social science, as well as the broad range of researchers and students across the social sciences and humanities whose work stands to benefit from serious consideration of practices.

The Constitution of Social Practices

The Constitution of Social Practices PDF Author: Kevin McMillan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351717731
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 379

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Book Description
Practices – specific, recurrent types of human action and activity – are perhaps the most fundamental "building blocks" of social reality. This book argues that the detailed empirical study of practices is essential to effective social-scientific inquiry. It develops a philosophical infrastructure for understanding human practices, and argues that practice theory should be the analytical centrepiece of social theory and the philosophy of the social sciences. What would social scientists’ research look like if they took these insights seriously? To answer this question, the book offers an analytical framework to guide empirical research on practices in different times and places. The author explores how practices can be identified, characterised and explained, how they function in concrete contexts and how they might change over time and space. The Constitution of Social Practices lies at the intersection of philosophy, social theory, cultural theory and the social sciences. It is essential reading for scholars in social theory and the philosophy of social science, as well as the broad range of researchers and students across the social sciences and humanities whose work stands to benefit from serious consideration of practices.

The Constitution of Society

The Constitution of Society PDF Author: Anthony Giddens
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745665284
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 585

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Book Description
Anthony Giddens has been in the forefront of developments in social theory for the past decade. In The Constitution of Society he outlines the distinctive position he has evolved during that period and offers a full statement of a major new perspective in social thought, a synthesis and elaboration of ideas touched on in previous works but described here for the first time in an integrated and comprehensive form. A particular feature is Giddens's concern to connect abstract problems of theory to an interpretation of the nature of empirical method in the social sciences. In presenting his own ideas, Giddens mounts a critical attack on some of the more orthodox sociological views. The Constitution of Society is an invaluable reference book for all those concerned with the basic issues in contemporary social theory.

Social Practices

Social Practices PDF Author: Theodore R. Schatzki
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521560225
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
This book addresses key topics in social theory such as the basic structures of social life, the character of human activity, and the nature of individuality. Drawing on the work of Wittgenstein, the author develops an account of social existence that argues that social practices are the fundamental phenomenon in social life. This approach offers new insight into the social formation of individuals, surpassing and critiquing the existing practice theories of Bourdieu, Giddens, Lyotard, and Oakeshott.

Site of the Social

Site of the Social PDF Author: Theodore R. Schatzki
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271046546
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
"A special feature of the book is its development of the theoretical argument by sustained reference to two historical examples: the medicinal herb business of a Shaker village in the 1850s and contemporary day trading on the Nasdaq market. First focusing on the relative simplicity of Shaker life to illuminate basic ontological characteristics of the social site, Schatzki then uses the sharp contrast with the complex and dynamic practice of day trading to reveal what makes this approach useful as a general account of social existence.

Social Practices and Dynamic Non-Humans

Social Practices and Dynamic Non-Humans PDF Author: Cecily Maller
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319921894
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
The robots are coming! So too is the ‘age of automation’, the march of ‘invasive’ species, more intense natural disasters, and a potential cataclysm of other unprecedented events and phenomena of which we do not yet know, and cannot predict. This book is concerned with how to account for these non-humans and their effects within theories of social practice. In particular, this provocative collection tackles contemporary debates about the roles, relations and agencies of constantly changing, disruptive, intelligent or otherwise 'dynamic' non-humans, such as weather, animals and automated devices. In doing so contributors challenge and take forward existing understandings of dynamic non-humans in theories of social practice by reconsidering their potential roles in everyday life. The book will benefit sociology, geography, science and technology studies, and human- (and animal-) computer interaction design scholars seeking to make sense of the complex entanglement of non-human phenomena and things in the performance of social practices.

The Constitution of Society

The Constitution of Society PDF Author: Anthony Giddens
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520057289
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
"It is likely that this book will be regarded as the most important piece of grand sociological theory in English of the past decade."—Mark Poster, University of California "This book will take its place alongside such major statements of sociological theory as those of Parsons and Habermas. Anyone interested int eh state of the social sciences today, the character of social theory or the relevance of philosophy to social theory will now find it essential to grapple with Giddens's bold and incisive book."—Richard Bernstein, Haverford College, USA "Anthony Giddens's new book is the fullest presentation yet of his theoretical views . . . . it has the lean, sparse, utterly serious, craftsmanlike qualities we have learned to expect from its author and which make it a real pleasure to read."—Dennis Wrong, Times Higher Education Supplement

Social Rights Under the Constitution

Social Rights Under the Constitution PDF Author: Cécile Fabre
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198296754
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
The desirability, or lack thereof, of bills of rights has been the focus of some of the most enduring political debates over the last two centuries. Unlike civil and political rights, social rights to the meeting of needs, standardly rights to adequate minimum income, education, housing, andhealth care are not usually given constitutional protection. This book argues that social rights should be constitutionalized and protected by the courts, and examines when such constitutionalization conflicts with democracy. It is thus located at the crossroads of two major issues of contemporarypolitical philosophy, to wit, the issue of democracy and the issue of distributie justice. Interestingly and surprisingly enough, philosophers who engage in penetrating discussions on distributive justice do not usually reflect on the implications of their argument for democracy; they are met withequal indifference on the part of theorists of democracy. This book stems from the perception that there may be conflicts between the demands of democracy and the demands of distributive justice, both of which are crucially important, and from the resulting recognition that the question of therelationship between these two values cannot be ignored.

The Philosophy of Social Practices

The Philosophy of Social Practices PDF Author: Raimo Tuomela
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 113943490X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
This is a systematic philosophical and conceptual study of the notion of a social practice. Raimo Tuomela explains social practices in terms of the interlocking mental states of the agents; he shows how social practices (for example customs and traditions) are 'building blocks of society'; and he offers a clear and powerful account of the way in which social institutions are constructed from these building blocks as established, interconnected sets of social practices with a special new social status. His analysis is based on the novel concept of shared 'we-attitudes', which represent a weak form of collective intentionality, and he makes instructive connections to major topics and figures in philosophy and the social sciences. His book will be of interest to a wide range of readers in philosophy of mind, philosophy of social science, psychology and sociology, and artificial intelligence.

Toward a Hermeneutic Theory of Social Practices

Toward a Hermeneutic Theory of Social Practices PDF Author: Dimitri Ginev
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351683985
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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Book Description
Recent methodological debates have shown that practice theory can either be developed by combining and slightly extending established theoretical concepts of inter-subjectivity, social normativity, collective behavior, interaction between agents and environment, habits, learning, collective intentionality, and human agency; or by following a strategy that promotes the quest for completely autonomous concepts. In the latter case, one defends a thesis of irreducibility. Toward a Hermeneutic Theory of Social Practices advocates this thesis by approaching the interrelational dynamic of social practices in terms of existential analytic. Indeed, this insightful volume outlines a methodology of the double hermeneutics that allows the study of the entanglement of agential plans, beliefs, and intentions with configured practices; while also demonstrating how interrelated social practices with which agency is entangled articulate cultural forms of life. Suggesting a framework for studying the cultural forms of life within the scope of practice theory, this book will appeal to postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers interested in fields such as Social Theory, Philosophy of Social Science, and Research Methods for Social and Behavioral Sciences.