| Popis: |
This chapter develops the authors’ intrinsic structuralism position, which contends that social reality emerges in interactions between mutually susceptible individuals. It harnesses Barnes’ performative theory of social institutions (PTSI), according to which the content and meaning of linguistic categories (and social institutions) emerge from acts of references to a given object made by a collective of interacting individuals. Secondly, the authors draw upon Bloor’s meaning finitism, which states that linguistic categories, practices, and social phenomena at large are never fully determined by existing structural arrangements. Meanings which linguistic categories carry are thus open-ended in character and in permanent transformation, and so is social reality. Full determination emerges through the normative standards attained by the constraining force of inter-evaluative dynamics among the members of a collective. This leads to a focus on the nature of evaluative practices and to Scheff’s theory of a deference-emotion system. Scheff states that shaming and priding practices underpin the constitution of patterned behavior. Consensus occurs when individuals, in order to avoid negative evaluations, align themselves to practices, norms, and knowledge held by other members of their communities. Thus, social life must be understood as ever-changing, in a continuous mode of constitution, and intrinsic to interaction. |
