People and Societies: Rom Harré and Designing the Social Sciences / Edition 1

by Luk van Langenhove

Overview

Rom Harré has pushed the boundaries of our thinking about people and societies and has challenged the orthodox philosophy of science and social psychology. His countless books and articles have inspired generations of scholars in philosophy, psychology, linguistics, cognitive science and social theory. The diversity of his work makes that some see him as a leading figure in the critical realist school of philosophy of science, other as a key player in developing a social constructionist approach to psychology. The present volume brings together a careful selection of his key writings and presents them in a framework that stresses the evolution of his thinking as well as the place of his thinking in ongoing debates in different disciplines. The overall theme is the study of people and their ways of life. This is the first book that gives readers a systematic introduction in the conceptual universe of this towering figure.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415567244
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/09/2010
Series:	Routledge Advances in Sociology
Pages:	326
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Luk Van Langenhove is Director of a research institute of the United Nations University in Bruges. He serves as Vice-President of the International Social Sciences Council. He has worked with Rom Harré since long and is the author of ‘Innovating the Social Sciences’ (2007).

Table of Contents

1. Rom Harré and the Exploration of the Human Umwelt Part 1: Epistemological and Ontological Foundations for the Social Sciences 2. Studying the Social Realm in a Scientific Way 3. The Anthropomorphic Model 4. A Metaphysics for Conservation: Speech-acts in People-space 5. The Second Cognitive Revolution Part 2: Conversations as the Primary Social Reality 6. Conversation as the Primary Social Reality 7. Using Cognitive Tools to Perform Cognitive Tasks 8. Grammar and Cognition 9. Varieties of Positioning 10. Social Sources of Mental Content and Order Part 3: Persons as Discursive Realisations 11. Persons as Discursive Realisations 12. On Being a Person: Problems of Self 13. Agency and Personality 14. Discursive Transformations of the Body 15. Individual Lives and Social Trajectories Part 4: The Discursive Dimension of Societies 16. The Discursive Dimension of Societies 17. Cultural Stereotypes and Positioning Theory 18. Crews, Clubs, Crowds and Classes: ‘The Social’ as a Discursive Category 19. Social Reality and the Myth of Social Structure 20. A Social Psychology of Social Change