Tim Dant
Biographic Data
| ID | 109046 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Tim Dant |
| GIVEN NAMES | Tim |
| FAMILY NAME | Dant |
| SIGNATURE | DANT T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Lancaster University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 361 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 25 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1988 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
In two minds
Mind is an inner property of individual being but, paradoxically, to live in the social world requires being able to know what is in other people’s minds. This article explores two approaches to making sense of this paradox; the concept of “theory of mind” and the phenomenological concept of “intersubjectivity.” Theory of mind is discussed in terms of its development as a concept in cognitive psychology to understand autism and intersubjectivity …
Material Culture
Material culture refers to the physical things that human beings surround themselves with and which have meaning for the members of a cultural group. Sometimes these things are simply gathered from the natural world but usually material resources are manufactured into forms that are useful or attractive or both. The clothes, tools, utensils, gadgets, ornaments, pictures, furniture, buildings, and equipment of a group of people are its material cu…
Knowledge, Ideology & Discourse
This student textbook, originally published in 1991, tackles the traditional problems of the sociology of knowledge from a new perspective. Drawing on recent developments in social theory, Tim Dant explores crucial questions such as the roles of power and knowledge, the status of rational knowledge, and the empirical analysis of knowledge. He argues that, from a sociological perspective, knowledge, ideology and discourse are different aspects of …
Television and the Moral Imaginary
Just how bad is television? Drawing on a range of theoretical sources including Husserl Lacan, Lefebvre, Sartre, Schutz and Adam Smith, this book takes a phenomenological approach to the small screen
The Work of Repair
As the pressure on limited natural resources and energy increases, so the trend of the consumer society of the twentieth century towards discarding and replacing things that stop working will shift towards recycling and repairing them. This paper contrasts the work of production with the work of repair and argues that the later is an artisanal process in tune with the species being of humans identified by Marx. Amongst the distinctive characteris…
Driving spaces
The `Pragmatics` of Material Interaction
Our everyday interactions with material objects are dependent on us making sense of what they mean and what actions will be effective in transforming them to suit our purposes. We perceive things by interpreting the information of our senses in the light of what we know of our material culture. We act on them through bodily gesture that changes them, both physically and their meaning as signs. Those who design and manufacture objects anticipate h…
Material Culture
Material culture refers to the physical stuff that human beings surround themselves with and which has meaning for the members of a cultural group. Mostly this “stuff” is things that are made within a society, but sometimes it is gathered directly from the natural world or recovered from past or distant cultures. It can be contrasted with other cultural forms such as ideas, images, practices, beliefs, and language that can be treated as independe…
Windsurfing
Material civilization
This paper argues that although classical sociology has largely overlooked the importance of social relations with the material world in shaping the form of society, Braudel's concept of 'material civilization' is a useful way to begin to understand the sociological significance of this relationship. The limitations of Braudel's historical and general concept can be partially overcome with Elias's analysis of the connection between 'technization'…
Recording the “Habitus”
The arrival of cheap video equipment would seem to have opened up a whole range of methodological opportunities for the social scientist, especially the sociologist. The poor quality, expense and time-consuming clumsiness of film has over the last ten years been replaced with a flexible and easy to use technology, cheaply available in the high street that enables the researcher to record social action “au naturel.” As a social researcher who has …
The Driver-car
The car has become ubiquitous in late modern society and has become the leading object in the ordinary social relations of mobility. Despite its centrality to the culture and material form of modern societies, the relationship between the car and human beings has remained largely unexplored by sociology. This article argues that cars are combined with their drivers into an assemblage, the 'driver-car', which has become a form of social being that…
Critical Social Theory
Criticism by Theory Culture as Myth Work and Non-Work The Critique of Everyday Life Sex and Sexuality Art and Entertainment Knowledge, Action and Politics The Idea of a Critical Theory
Critical social theory
Dealing with Dirt
This paper explores the significance of dirt in the work of technicians who service and repair private cars. Rather than being useful in understanding how dirt is dealt with, the historical and anthropological analyses of dirt are shown to be overly concerned with cultural significance and the idea that dirt is no more than 'matter out of place'. Such accounts suppress the more common sense approach that dirt is unpleasant to human beings and is …
Pictures of the past
This article explores the key moments in Benjamin's and Barthes's analyses of the cultural significance of the photograph. For Benjamin these are: the optical unconscious, the transmission of aura, the representation of cultural and political decay and proto-surrealist political commentary. For Barthes they are: the techniques of the photographer, the studium, the punctum and the ecstasy of the image. These rather different approaches to photogra…
Consumption Caught in the 'Cash Nexus
During the last thirty years `consumption' has become a major topic in the study of contemporary culture within anthropology, psychology and sociology. For many authors it has become central to understanding the nature of material culture in the modern world, but this paper argues that the concept is, in British writing at least, too concerned with its economic origins in the selling and buying of consumer goods or commodities. It is argued that …
Playing With Things
The sociology of leisure traditionally focuses on human relations, treating any material objects used as marginal to the activity. This article argues that some recreational activity is realized through interaction with material objects and uses the example of windsurfing to show how. Three approaches to understanding the sociological features of the human-object interaction are considered. The first looks at playing as a distinctive type of soci…
Fetishism and the Social Value of Objects
The idea of the fetish has a particular presence in the writings of both Marx and Freud. It implies for these two theorists of the social, a particular form of relation between human beings and objects. In the work of both, the idea of the fetish involves attributing properties to objects that they do not 'really' have and that should correctly be recognised as human. While Marx's account of fetishism addresses the exchange-value of commodities a…
Sociology and Ageing
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Knowledge, Ideology and Discourse
Sociology and Ageing
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Sociology of Ageing
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Keyworkers for Elderly People in the Community
In the United Kingdom a range of services for elderly people in the community has developed that is delivered by a variety of professionals and administered within different organisations. This has resulted in a problem of co-ordinating services to meet the individual needs of the most frail elderly people. In the United States 'case management' has been introduced as a way of improving the co-ordination of care. Despite structural differences in…
Dependency and Old Age
The concept of dependency is involved in two strands of the literature on old age, and is used in each with a different effect. In the literature on ‘structured dependency’ the concept is used to describe and criticise a relationship between elderly people and the state that is determined by social policy. In the literature on ‘dependency scales’ the concept is used as a basis for categorising elderly people for research, planning and service pur…
The Driver-car
The car has become ubiquitous in late modern society and has become the leading object in the ordinary social relations of mobility. Despite its centrality to the culture and material form of modern societies, the relationship between the car and human beings has remained largely unexplored by sociology. This article argues that cars are combined with their drivers into an assemblage, the 'driver-car', which has become a form of social being that…
Critical social theory
The Work of Repair
As the pressure on limited natural resources and energy increases, so the trend of the consumer society of the twentieth century towards discarding and replacing things that stop working will shift towards recycling and repairing them. This paper contrasts the work of production with the work of repair and argues that the later is an artisanal process in tune with the species being of humans identified by Marx. Amongst the distinctive characteris…
The `Pragmatics` of Material Interaction
Our everyday interactions with material objects are dependent on us making sense of what they mean and what actions will be effective in transforming them to suit our purposes. We perceive things by interpreting the information of our senses in the light of what we know of our material culture. We act on them through bodily gesture that changes them, both physically and their meaning as signs. Those who design and manufacture objects anticipate h…
Material civilization
This paper argues that although classical sociology has largely overlooked the importance of social relations with the material world in shaping the form of society, Braudel's concept of 'material civilization' is a useful way to begin to understand the sociological significance of this relationship. The limitations of Braudel's historical and general concept can be partially overcome with Elias's analysis of the connection between 'technization'…
Dealing with Dirt
This paper explores the significance of dirt in the work of technicians who service and repair private cars. Rather than being useful in understanding how dirt is dealt with, the historical and anthropological analyses of dirt are shown to be overly concerned with cultural significance and the idea that dirt is no more than 'matter out of place'. Such accounts suppress the more common sense approach that dirt is unpleasant to human beings and is …
Fetishism and the Social Value of Objects
The idea of the fetish has a particular presence in the writings of both Marx and Freud. It implies for these two theorists of the social, a particular form of relation between human beings and objects. In the work of both, the idea of the fetish involves attributing properties to objects that they do not 'really' have and that should correctly be recognised as human. While Marx's account of fetishism addresses the exchange-value of commodities a…
Knowledge, Ideology and Discourse
Playing With Things
The sociology of leisure traditionally focuses on human relations, treating any material objects used as marginal to the activity. This article argues that some recreational activity is realized through interaction with material objects and uses the example of windsurfing to show how. Three approaches to understanding the sociological features of the human-object interaction are considered. The first looks at playing as a distinctive type of soci…
Windsurfing
Pictures of the past
This article explores the key moments in Benjamin's and Barthes's analyses of the cultural significance of the photograph. For Benjamin these are: the optical unconscious, the transmission of aura, the representation of cultural and political decay and proto-surrealist political commentary. For Barthes they are: the techniques of the photographer, the studium, the punctum and the ecstasy of the image. These rather different approaches to photogra…
Dependency and Old Age
The concept of dependency is involved in two strands of the literature on old age, and is used in each with a different effect. In the literature on ‘structured dependency’ the concept is used to describe and criticise a relationship between elderly people and the state that is determined by social policy. In the literature on ‘dependency scales’ the concept is used as a basis for categorising elderly people for research, planning and service pur…
Consumption Caught in the 'Cash Nexus
During the last thirty years `consumption' has become a major topic in the study of contemporary culture within anthropology, psychology and sociology. For many authors it has become central to understanding the nature of material culture in the modern world, but this paper argues that the concept is, in British writing at least, too concerned with its economic origins in the selling and buying of consumer goods or commodities. It is argued that …
Keyworkers for Elderly People in the Community
In the United Kingdom a range of services for elderly people in the community has developed that is delivered by a variety of professionals and administered within different organisations. This has resulted in a problem of co-ordinating services to meet the individual needs of the most frail elderly people. In the United States 'case management' has been introduced as a way of improving the co-ordination of care. Despite structural differences in…
Sociology of Ageing
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Dependency and Old Age
The concept of dependency is involved in two strands of the literature on old age, and is used in each with a different effect. In the literature on ‘structured dependency’ the concept is used to describe and criticise a relationship between elderly people and the state that is determined by social policy. In the literature on ‘dependency scales’ the concept is used as a basis for categorising elderly people for research, planning and service pur…
Sociology of Ageing
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Keyworkers for Elderly People in the Community
In the United Kingdom a range of services for elderly people in the community has developed that is delivered by a variety of professionals and administered within different organisations. This has resulted in a problem of co-ordinating services to meet the individual needs of the most frail elderly people. In the United States 'case management' has been introduced as a way of improving the co-ordination of care. Despite structural differences in…
Sociology and Ageing
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Sociology and Ageing
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Knowledge, Ideology and Discourse
Fetishism and the Social Value of Objects
The idea of the fetish has a particular presence in the writings of both Marx and Freud. It implies for these two theorists of the social, a particular form of relation between human beings and objects. In the work of both, the idea of the fetish involves attributing properties to objects that they do not 'really' have and that should correctly be recognised as human. While Marx's account of fetishism addresses the exchange-value of commodities a…
Playing With Things
The sociology of leisure traditionally focuses on human relations, treating any material objects used as marginal to the activity. This article argues that some recreational activity is realized through interaction with material objects and uses the example of windsurfing to show how. Three approaches to understanding the sociological features of the human-object interaction are considered. The first looks at playing as a distinctive type of soci…
Consumption Caught in the 'Cash Nexus
During the last thirty years `consumption' has become a major topic in the study of contemporary culture within anthropology, psychology and sociology. For many authors it has become central to understanding the nature of material culture in the modern world, but this paper argues that the concept is, in British writing at least, too concerned with its economic origins in the selling and buying of consumer goods or commodities. It is argued that …
Pictures of the past
This article explores the key moments in Benjamin's and Barthes's analyses of the cultural significance of the photograph. For Benjamin these are: the optical unconscious, the transmission of aura, the representation of cultural and political decay and proto-surrealist political commentary. For Barthes they are: the techniques of the photographer, the studium, the punctum and the ecstasy of the image. These rather different approaches to photogra…
Critical Social Theory
Criticism by Theory Culture as Myth Work and Non-Work The Critique of Everyday Life Sex and Sexuality Art and Entertainment Knowledge, Action and Politics The Idea of a Critical Theory
Critical social theory
Dealing with Dirt
This paper explores the significance of dirt in the work of technicians who service and repair private cars. Rather than being useful in understanding how dirt is dealt with, the historical and anthropological analyses of dirt are shown to be overly concerned with cultural significance and the idea that dirt is no more than 'matter out of place'. Such accounts suppress the more common sense approach that dirt is unpleasant to human beings and is …
The Driver-car
The car has become ubiquitous in late modern society and has become the leading object in the ordinary social relations of mobility. Despite its centrality to the culture and material form of modern societies, the relationship between the car and human beings has remained largely unexplored by sociology. This article argues that cars are combined with their drivers into an assemblage, the 'driver-car', which has become a form of social being that…
Recording the “Habitus”
The arrival of cheap video equipment would seem to have opened up a whole range of methodological opportunities for the social scientist, especially the sociologist. The poor quality, expense and time-consuming clumsiness of film has over the last ten years been replaced with a flexible and easy to use technology, cheaply available in the high street that enables the researcher to record social action “au naturel.” As a social researcher who has …
Material civilization
This paper argues that although classical sociology has largely overlooked the importance of social relations with the material world in shaping the form of society, Braudel's concept of 'material civilization' is a useful way to begin to understand the sociological significance of this relationship. The limitations of Braudel's historical and general concept can be partially overcome with Elias's analysis of the connection between 'technization'…
Material Culture
Material culture refers to the physical stuff that human beings surround themselves with and which has meaning for the members of a cultural group. Mostly this “stuff” is things that are made within a society, but sometimes it is gathered directly from the natural world or recovered from past or distant cultures. It can be contrasted with other cultural forms such as ideas, images, practices, beliefs, and language that can be treated as independe…
Windsurfing
Driving spaces
The `Pragmatics` of Material Interaction
Our everyday interactions with material objects are dependent on us making sense of what they mean and what actions will be effective in transforming them to suit our purposes. We perceive things by interpreting the information of our senses in the light of what we know of our material culture. We act on them through bodily gesture that changes them, both physically and their meaning as signs. Those who design and manufacture objects anticipate h…
The Work of Repair
As the pressure on limited natural resources and energy increases, so the trend of the consumer society of the twentieth century towards discarding and replacing things that stop working will shift towards recycling and repairing them. This paper contrasts the work of production with the work of repair and argues that the later is an artisanal process in tune with the species being of humans identified by Marx. Amongst the distinctive characteris…
Television and the Moral Imaginary
Just how bad is television? Drawing on a range of theoretical sources including Husserl Lacan, Lefebvre, Sartre, Schutz and Adam Smith, this book takes a phenomenological approach to the small screen
Knowledge, Ideology & Discourse
This student textbook, originally published in 1991, tackles the traditional problems of the sociology of knowledge from a new perspective. Drawing on recent developments in social theory, Tim Dant explores crucial questions such as the roles of power and knowledge, the status of rational knowledge, and the empirical analysis of knowledge. He argues that, from a sociological perspective, knowledge, ideology and discourse are different aspects of …
In two minds
Mind is an inner property of individual being but, paradoxically, to live in the social world requires being able to know what is in other people’s minds. This article explores two approaches to making sense of this paradox; the concept of “theory of mind” and the phenomenological concept of “intersubjectivity.” Theory of mind is discussed in terms of its development as a concept in cognitive psychology to understand autism and intersubjectivity …
Material Culture
Material culture refers to the physical things that human beings surround themselves with and which have meaning for the members of a cultural group. Sometimes these things are simply gathered from the natural world but usually material resources are manufactured into forms that are useful or attractive or both. The clothes, tools, utensils, gadgets, ornaments, pictures, furniture, buildings, and equipment of a group of people are its material cu…
Sociology (21 works) · Epistemology (19 works) · Philosophy (14 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Social science (9 works) · Aesthetics (8 works) · Art (8 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Political science (6 works)