Semiotic Sociology provides solid ground for cultural analysis in the social sciences by building up a mediation between structuralist semiology (Saussure), pragmatist semiotics (Peirce), and phenomenological sociology (Schutz, Garfinkel, Berger and Luckmann). This is a deviation from the common view that these traditions are seen as mutually exclusive alternatives and thus competitors of each other. The net result of the synthesis is that a new social theory emerges wherein action theories (Weber and rational choice) are based on phenomenological sociology and phenomenological sociology is based on neostructuralist semiotics, which is a synthesis of the Saussurean and the Peircean traditions of understanding habits of interpretation and interaction. The core issues of social research are then addressed on these grounds. The topics covered include the economy/society relationship, power, gender, modernity, institutionalization, the canon of current social theory including micro/macro and agency/structure relations, and the grounds of social criticism.
Author(s): Risto Heiskala
Series: Palgrave Studies in Relational Sociology
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 239
City: Cham
Acknowledgements
Praise for Semiotic Sociology
Contents
About the Author
List of Figures and Tables
Chapter 1: Introduction: Towards Semiotic Sociology and Social Theory
References
Chapter 2: Synthesis of Semiology, Semiotics and Phenomenological Sociology
Structuralist Semiology
Pragmatism
Phenomenological Sociology
Conclusion: Implications for Cultural and Social Theory
References
Chapter 3: Economy and Society in Semiotic Institutionalism
Structural-Functionalist Economic Sociology
Parsons: The AGIL Scheme of the Social System
Economy and Society in Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action: System and the Lifeworld
What Is Wrong with Parsons and Habermas?
The Challenge of Institutionalism
Institutionalism in Economics
Pragmatist and Phenomenological Institutionalism
Towards a Synthesis: Economy and Society in Semiotic Institutionalism
Semiotic Institutionalism
Semiotic Interpretation of the System–Lifeworld Scheme
Conclusion: How Does Semiotic Institutionalism Overcome the Limitations of the Structural-Functionalist Approach?
References
Chapter 4: Power and Signification in Neostructuralism
Conceptions of Power
Resource Theories: Weber and Parsons
The Structural Approach: Foucault
The Neostructuralist Approach
Understanding the Four Approaches as a Scale
Applying the Scale of Power Conceptions
Interpreting Everyday Conversation Neostructuralistically
Big Case Comparison and Dispositifs in Historical Sociology
The Need for Less Complex Approaches
Conclusion
References
Chapter 5: Modernity and the Intersemiotic Condition
Intersemiosis: Mystery Train and Michael Jackson
Modernity as Institutional Tendencies
Culture as Semiosis
The Postmodernity Debate and Sociological Analysis of Culture
Postmodernity or Just Modernity and Intersemiotic Condition?
References
Chapter 6: Modernity and the Articulation of the Gender System
Articulation and Social Sciences
Gender as a Biologically Motivated Cultural System
Gender and Modernity: The Levels of Articulation
Gender and Modernity: Order, Conflict and Chaos
Conclusion
References
Chapter 7: The Power of Institutions: The Case of Gendered Agency
Interpreting Agency: Biology and Rational Choice
An Institutionalist Reinterpretation: Regulations and Path Dependency
Bounded Rationality: Normative and Cultural-Cognitive Institutionalism
Cultural Institutionalism Reinterpreted: Discursive and Habitual Institutionalism
The Cumulated Scheme Applied to Gender
Conclusion and Future Tasks
References
Chapter 8: From Goffman to Semiotic Sociology
Framing Goffman
Frame 1: Dramaturgic Sociology
Frame 2: Micro-revolution and Co-presence
Frame 3: Interaction Order and Ritual
Frame 4: Self and Interaction Contingency
Frame 5: Frame Analysis and Presence
Goffman and Semiotic Sociology
References
Chapter 9: Conclusion: Semiotic Sociology in the Field of Social Theory
Semiotic Sociology and Social Ontology in Current Social Theory
Semiotic Sociology, Institutions and the Material Turn
Hermeneutics of Suspicion: Marx, Freud and the Frankfurt School
References
Author Index
Subject Index
