The Structure of Social Inconsistencies: A Contribution to a Unified Theory of Play, Game, and Social Action

ISBN-13: 9789024750061 / Angielski / Miękka / 1970 / 186 str.

Richard H. Grathoff; R. Grathoff

Opis

Few phenomena have found such divergent descriptions in sociological lit- erature as have social inconsistencies. They were studied by George Herbert Mead as eruptive "natural" events constituting a social temporality. Alfred SchUtz described them as "explosions" of the individual actor's anticipatory action patterns. Talcott Parsons attempted to grasp social inconsistencies into his frame of "pattern variables," while Erving Goffman dealt with them as disruptions of "fostered impressions of reality" maintained by one or the other dominant team. The present study traces these divergent approaches back to various un- checked assumptions concerning the structure and the constitution of social types. Thus, to further clarify the relationship between social types and the relevance structure of interactional situations has been my first objective. This initially rather limited intention widened when the role of social incon- sistencies for analysing the differences between play, game, and social action proper in the immediate context of social interaction became apparent. The structure of social inconsistencies seems to hold a key to unifying the theo- ries of play and social ,action.

Spis treści

I. Introduction: Social Action and Play.- 1.1 Sociological Interest in Game and Play.- 1.2 Contextual Inconsistencies and the Marginality of Games and Play.- 1.3 Some Studies of Contextual Inconsistencies.- 1.4 The Topic and its Methodological Frame.- 2. Consistency in Social Interaction.- 3. Some Phenomenological and Pragmatistic Theories of Relevance.- 3.1 Schütz’ Theory of Relevance.- 3.11 Thematic Relevance.- 3.12 Motivational Relevance.- 3.13 Interpretational Relevance.- 3.2 Gurwitsch’ Theory of Relevance.- 3.3 James’ Theory of Fringes and Peirce’ Abductive Reasoning.- 3.31 The First Stage of Inquiry: Abduction, which is Related to the Emergence of Incipient Events.- 3.32 The Second Stage: Deduction, which is Related to Typification.- 3.33 The Third Stage: Induction, which is Related to the Formation of Types.- 3.34 Summary.- 4. Social Inconsistencies and Social Types.- 4.1 The Structure of Social Relevance.- 4.2 The Rôle of Play in Processes of Typification.- 4.3 The Notion of Typificatory Scheme.- 4.4 Gaps and Social Inconsistencies.- 4.41 Permanent Gaps.- 4.42 Definition of Social Inconsistencies.- 4.5 The Arisal of Social Types.- 4.51 The First Stage: Arisal of an Incipient Event.- 4.52 The Second Stage: Typification by the Incipient Event.- 4.53 The Third Stage: Type and Social Object.- 4.6 Conclusion.- 5. Temporal Typification and Social Temporality.- 5.1 Typificatory Schemes and Social Temporality.- 5.11 Temporal Typification and Inner Time.- 5.12 A Necessary Condition for Social Temporality.- 5.13 Schütz’ Notion of “Vivid Present” and Social Temporality.- 5.14 Parsons’ “Pattern Variables” and Social Temporality.- 5.2 Social Temporality and Incipient Events.- 5.21 Social Inconsistencies in Parsons’ Frame of Pattern Variables.- 5.22 Incipient Events in Schütz’ Notion of We-Relation.- 5.23 A More Stringent Condition for Social Temporality.- 5.3 G. H. Mead’s Notion of the Present and Social Temporality.- 5.4 A Comparison with Some Notions of Sartre.- 5.5 Summary.- 6. Social Inconsistencies and Symbolic Types in Play.- 6.1 Reduction of Types in Play and Social Action.- 6.11 A First Characteristic of Play: Reduction of Types in Play.- 6.12 Reduction of Types as “Entlastung” in Social Action.- 6.2 Social Limits and Symbolic Types in Play.- 6.21 Anomie, Social Relevance, and Symbolic Types.- 6.22 The Symbolic Type of the Fool.- 6.23 Social Limits: Anomie and Alienation.- 6.24 Play and Symbolic Types (Second Characteristic of Play).- 6.25 Summary: The Nomic Rôle of Play.- 6.3 The Rôle of the Body in Play.- 6.31 The Body as Incipient Event.- 6.32 The Body in Play (Third Characteristic of Play).- 7. Toward a Unified Theory of Game, Play, and Social Action.- 7.1 Common Symbolic Types in Play and Game.- 7.2 Inconsistencies and Relevance in Play, in Game, and in Social Action.- 7.3 The Closure of a Game’s Typificatory Scheme.- 7.4 Conclusion: Game and Social Action.- 8. Team and Audience.- 8.1 Team and Audience: Theory.- 8.2 Practice: The Relation between Career Patterns and the Structure of Games.- 9. Conclusion: The Construction and Solution of Social Inconsistencies.