Existential Sociology
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7079295 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joseph A Kotarba (0000-0001-5345-8152, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Publication date | 2007-02-15 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | OTHER |
| Venue | The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/9781405165518.wbeose083 |
| OpenAlex | W4249090318 |
| ISBN | 9781405165518 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 8 |
Existential sociology emerged in the late 1970s as the most recent version of everyday life sociology. Writers in this perspective have attempted to integrate symbolic interactionism's powerful concepts of the self and the situation, phenomenological sociology's emphasis on the social construction of reality, and ethnomethodology's telling critique of conventional sociological theory and methods, with an innovative argument for the centrality of embodiment and feelings to human agency. Thus, existential sociology can be defined descriptively as the study of human experience‐in‐the‐world (or existence) in all its forms . A key feature of experience‐in‐the‐(contemporary) world is change. Existential sociologists expect, if not assume, change to be a constant feature of people's lives, their sense of self, their experience of the social world, the other people that populate the social world, and the culture that provides meaning for life. Everyday life is more than merely situational and problematic, a point on which all the varieties of everyday life sociology generally agree. Everyday life is dramatic – in an aesthetic sense – and experienced as such. In contrast to Erving Goffman's dramaturgical model of social life, the drama that existential sociologists see in everyday life does not follow anyone else's script. The actor is simultaneously writer, producer, and actor on a stage not necessarily of his or her choosing, but one that cannot simply be exited without confrontation with the producer/director (e.g., agents of social control
Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy · Argument (complex analysis · Epistemology · Ethnomethodology · Everyday life · Existentialism · Interactionism · Meaning (existential · Social science · Sociological theory · Sociology · Symbolic interactionism · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Philosophy
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,09 |
| Citation span | 1994 - 2021 (28) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |