Hubert Knoblauch

This volume advocates a shift from the social constructivism found in the work of Thomas Luckmann and Peter Berger, to a communicative constructivism that acknowledges communication as an embodied form of action in its own right, according to which social actors, in engaging in communicative action, construct a material social reality that guides, delimits, and enables actions. A study of the importance of understanding the role of communication in an age in which digitization and mediatization have extended the reach of communication to a global level and brought about the emergence of the communication society, The Communicative Construction of Reality shows how communication society does not merely replace modern society and its hierarchical institutions, but complements it in a manner that continually results in conflicts leading to the refiguration of society. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology with interests in the sociology of knowledge, communication, and social theory.

The Communicative Construction of Reality

Martina Löw

Gabriela B. Christmann

"Through a variety of empirical studies, this volume offers fresh insights into the manner in which different forms of communicative action transform urban space. With attention to the methodological questions that arise from the attempt to study such changes empirically, it offers new theoretical foundations for understanding the social construction and re-construction of spaces through communicative action. Seeing communicative action as the basic element in the social construction of reality and conceptualising communication not only in terms of the use of language and texts, but as involving any kind of objectification, such as technologies, bodies and non-verbal signs, it considers the roles of both direct and mediatised (or digitised) communication. An examination of the conceptualisation of the communicative (re-)construction of spaces and the means by which this change might be empirically investigated, this book demonstrates the fruitfulness of the notion of refiguration as a means by which to understand the transformation of contemporary societies. As such, it will appeal to sociologists, social theorists and geographers with interests in social construction and urban space"--

Theoretical Approaches and Empirical Studies

Communicative Constructions and the Refiguration of Spaces

Helga Kotthoff

The Aesthetics and Proto-aesthetics of Communication

Verbal Art Across Cultures

Emotionen lassen sich nicht auf innerpsychische Vorgänge reduzieren, sie finden auch nicht im Hirn statt, Emotionen haben vor allem mit dem Verhältnis der Menschen zueinander zu tun. In seiner faszinierenden Studie über die „ausrastenden Autofahrer“ und über das Weinen bietet Katz mittlerweile klassisch gewordene Analysen der Emotionen, die hier erstmals in deutscher Sprache vorliegen. Katz zeigt darin etwa, wie Emotionen mit kleinen narrativen Projekten verbunden sind, mit denen wir ihnen einen Sinn verleihen. Daneben sind die Interaktionsprozesse zentral, in denen Emotionen auftreten, denn sie tragen dazu bei, wie unser Körper die Emotionen ausdrückt. Schließlich führen die Emotionen zu einer Metamorphose der körperlichen Sinnlichkeit. Indem eine Person sich ins Lachen, Weinen oder Ärgern hinein und wieder hinaus begibt, ändert sich der sinnliche Rahmen ihres Handelns. Diese Veränderungen betreffen den ausführenden Körper.

Untersuchungen zur emotionalen Metamorphose des Selbst

Jack Katz: Über ausrastende Autofahrer und das Weinen

Werner Rammert

Arnold Windeler

Michael Hutter

The book offers new theoretical perspectives on innovation, analyzes innovation processes in diverse innovation fields, and presents case studies that reflect the diversity of innovations fields. To what extent and in what sense does innovation characterize our societies today? Innovations are no longer limited to the economic sphere; we find them in almost all areas of society today. Diverse actors generate innovations in different, increasingly reflexive ways. New concepts, practices, and institutional forms such as open source, crowdfunding, or citizen panels expand the spectrum.

Perspectives, Fields, and Cases

Innovation Society Today

Hubert Knoblauch

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