Explaining Culture: The Social Pursuit of Subjective Order
This book is about our appreciation for order and meaningfulness. It offers a new theory of that feeling inspired by Durkheim and Marx, then derives other theories to answer a range of questions: why we like to make ourselves orderly (in Chapter Three’s theory of identity and commitment), why create shared orders of meaning (in Chapter Four’s theory of culture); how we create those orders collaboratively through conversation (Chapter Five), and also through narrative, symbolic, and ritualistic formats (Chapter Six), and how orders of meaning are created in response to social structural position (Chapter Seven). In the end, this book shows how our sense of order both integrates and segregates us into productive associations with one another.

And so, Explaining Culture is able to explain two patterns common to all growth: expansion and centralization. We see how our desire for novelty disperses us for resources, and that for familiarity draws us together to create meaningful order from them. Indeed, this book may offer a new approach to answering one of the most basic questions in both social and natural science: the question of how organic systems like society are created and maintained.

Explaining Culture is an important new step in answering our most basic questions about culture, social interaction, and the emergence of order. The unique contribution of this work is in identifying the determinants of meaningfulness, and the ways we make the world meaningful by ordering it. Our valuing of order is rarely mentioned in sociology, but this book shows how it is the key influence in how we order ourselves and each other.
1110913753
Explaining Culture: The Social Pursuit of Subjective Order
This book is about our appreciation for order and meaningfulness. It offers a new theory of that feeling inspired by Durkheim and Marx, then derives other theories to answer a range of questions: why we like to make ourselves orderly (in Chapter Three’s theory of identity and commitment), why create shared orders of meaning (in Chapter Four’s theory of culture); how we create those orders collaboratively through conversation (Chapter Five), and also through narrative, symbolic, and ritualistic formats (Chapter Six), and how orders of meaning are created in response to social structural position (Chapter Seven). In the end, this book shows how our sense of order both integrates and segregates us into productive associations with one another.

And so, Explaining Culture is able to explain two patterns common to all growth: expansion and centralization. We see how our desire for novelty disperses us for resources, and that for familiarity draws us together to create meaningful order from them. Indeed, this book may offer a new approach to answering one of the most basic questions in both social and natural science: the question of how organic systems like society are created and maintained.

Explaining Culture is an important new step in answering our most basic questions about culture, social interaction, and the emergence of order. The unique contribution of this work is in identifying the determinants of meaningfulness, and the ways we make the world meaningful by ordering it. Our valuing of order is rarely mentioned in sociology, but this book shows how it is the key influence in how we order ourselves and each other.
49.49 In Stock
Explaining Culture: The Social Pursuit of Subjective Order

Explaining Culture: The Social Pursuit of Subjective Order

by Loren Demerath
Explaining Culture: The Social Pursuit of Subjective Order

Explaining Culture: The Social Pursuit of Subjective Order

by Loren Demerath

eBook

$49.49 

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers

LEND ME® See Details

Overview

This book is about our appreciation for order and meaningfulness. It offers a new theory of that feeling inspired by Durkheim and Marx, then derives other theories to answer a range of questions: why we like to make ourselves orderly (in Chapter Three’s theory of identity and commitment), why create shared orders of meaning (in Chapter Four’s theory of culture); how we create those orders collaboratively through conversation (Chapter Five), and also through narrative, symbolic, and ritualistic formats (Chapter Six), and how orders of meaning are created in response to social structural position (Chapter Seven). In the end, this book shows how our sense of order both integrates and segregates us into productive associations with one another.

And so, Explaining Culture is able to explain two patterns common to all growth: expansion and centralization. We see how our desire for novelty disperses us for resources, and that for familiarity draws us together to create meaningful order from them. Indeed, this book may offer a new approach to answering one of the most basic questions in both social and natural science: the question of how organic systems like society are created and maintained.

Explaining Culture is an important new step in answering our most basic questions about culture, social interaction, and the emergence of order. The unique contribution of this work is in identifying the determinants of meaningfulness, and the ways we make the world meaningful by ordering it. Our valuing of order is rarely mentioned in sociology, but this book shows how it is the key influence in how we order ourselves and each other.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780739175422
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date: 05/15/2012
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 160
File size: 606 KB

About the Author

Loren Demerath is associate professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology at Centenary College of Louisiana.

Table of Contents

Chapter One: Alienation and Anomia as a Basis for Theorizing Culture
Chapter Two: Knowledge-Based Affect and the Pleasures of Order
Chapter Three: Putting Our Selves in Order: An Epistemological Identity Theory
Chapter Four: The Social Pursuit of Meaningfulness: An Epistemological Theory of Culture
Chapter Five: The Pursuit of Meaningfulness Through: Epistemological Conversation
Chapter Six: Conditions for Community and Culture
Chapter Seven: Network Position, Knowledge-Based Affect, and Cultural Manipulation
Chapter Eight: Conclusion

What People are Saying About This

Thomas J. Cottle

Not ironically, the topics explored in this masterfully conceived volume are precisely what make this work invaluable: Meaningfulness, conceptual power, uniqueness, verbal articulation. Few in our field have that rare ability to wrap a superior mind around the most difficult and yet essential matters of being in the world, such as the subjective reading of society and culture. Loren Demerath appears to be one of the special ones. Explaining Culture is a gem of a book.

Brian Powell

What is the nature of order? What is the nature of self? What is the inextricable link among individuals, social interaction, culture and society? These questions have fascinated and befuddled social scientists for a long time. Loren Demerath’sExplaining Culture: The Social Pursuit of Subjective Order offers remarkably coherent and highly persuasive answers to these questions and does so by brilliantly merging insights from an array of subfields in sociology—among them, sociology of emotion, social psychology, social organization, and culture. This book will be of great interest to anyone studying these areas and to social scientists who want to read a compelling articulation of the connection between individuals and society.

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews