This monograph examines an academic discipline in crisis. The author claims that this field concerned with society and relationships is in trouble. No one can seem to agree on what it does or how to go about doing it. His insightful argument revives the thought of key phenomenologists often no longer considered in social science. Looking predominantly at debates within religious studies, this book uncovers certain misguided presuppositions which have strongly influenced scholars in the field. This reflects itself in a Weberian Ideal regarding the institutional place of science in the universities and a failure to properly consider the epistemic status of knowledge produced for its own sake. But even recognizing these issues will not get to the core of the crisis. It will not help scholars better understand what it is to be human. To address this, the author digs deeper. He draws on the philosophical phenomenology of Husserl’s Phenomenological Movement to critique our very idea of social science. In the process, he presents a radical approach to the question of humanity. This volume concludes that, properly understood, social science is a hobby. It deserves no special place in the university. Indeed, if it is to be pursued properly, it requires a fundamentally revised understanding of humanity. The author argues this not of the sake of controversy. Rather, his intention is to affect the necessary shift in our understanding that will enable future constructive solutions.

The idea of this anthology is to explore the relationships between phenomenology and the social sciences.

In this bold and original study, Jeff Kochan constructively combines the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) with Martin Heidegger’s early existential conception of science. Kochan shows convincingly that these apparently quite different approaches to science are, in fact, largely compatible, even mutually reinforcing. By combining Heidegger with SSK, Kochan argues, we can explicate, elaborate, and empirically ground Heidegger’s philosophy of science in a way that makes it more accessible and useful for social scientists and historians of science. Likewise, incorporating Heideggerian phenomenology into SSK renders SKK a more robust and attractive methodology for use by scholars in the interdisciplinary field of Science and Technology Studies (STS). Kochan’s ground-breaking reinterpretation of Heidegger also enables STS scholars to sustain a principled analytical focus on scientific subjectivity, without running afoul of the orthodox subject-object distinction they often reject. Science as Social Existence is the first book of its kind, unfurling its argument through a range of topics relevant to contemporary STS research. These include the epistemology and metaphysics of scientific practice, as well as the methods of explanation appropriate to social scientific and historical studies of science. Science as Social Existence puts concentrated emphasis on the compatibility of Heidegger’s existential conception of science with the historical sociology of scientific knowledge, pursuing this combination at both macro- and micro-historical levels. Beautifully written and accessible, Science as Social Existence puts new and powerful tools into the hands of sociologists and historians of science, cultural theorists of science, Heidegger scholars, and pluralist philosophers of science.

Explaining both the theoretical and practical aspects of doing qualitative research, the book uses examples from real-world research projects to emphasise how to conduct qualitative research in the social sciences. Pranee Liamputtong draws together contributions covering qualitative research in cultural and medical anthropology, sociology, gender studies, political science, criminology, demography, economic sciences, social work, and education.

This book is a methodical and systematic presentation of basic ontological issues that must be raised with respect to the meaning and function of natural science. The ontological issues are discussed from a hermeneutico-phenomenological point of view. In addition, the book contains critical discussions of basic themes raised by Carnap, Hempel, Stegmüller, Kuhn, Lakatos, Hübner, Popper, van Fraassen, Heelan and Kisiel. One of the basic theses developed in the book is that logical, epistemological and methodological issues pertinent to the natural sciences should be complemented by ontological issues that focus mainly on meaning and truth. The book also contains one chapter on the implications of the ontological ideas presented for the history of the natural sciences.

In this volume, Bernstein forsees and outlines the development of a social theory that is at once empirical, interpretive, and critical.

This book looks at two ‘revolutions’ in philosophy – phenomenology and conceptual analysis which have been influential in sociology and psychology. It discusses humanistic psychiatry and sociological approaches to the specific area of mental illness, which counter the ultimately reductionist implications of Freudian psycho-analytic theory. The book, originally published in 1973, concludes by stating the broad underlying themes of the two forms of humanistic philosophy and indicating how they relate to the problems of theory and method in sociology.

In this book, his major work, Alfred Schutz attempts to provide a sound philosophical basis for the sociological theories of Max Weber. Using a Husserlian phenomenology, Schutz provides a complete and original analysis of human action and its "intended meaning."

This book features papers written by renowned international scholars that analyze the interdependence of art, phenomenology, and social science. The papers show how the analysis of the production as well as the perception and interpretation of art work needs to take into consideration the subjective viewpoint of the artist in addition to that of the interpreter. Phenomenology allows a description of the subjectively centered life-world of the individual actor—artist or interpreter—and the objective structures of literature, music, and the aesthetic domain in general. The perspective of social science serves to reconstruct the socio-historical structure involved in the creation and reception of the art work. The authors concentrate on this specific theoretical focus which combines both phenomenology and social science and offers an innovative framework for the analysis of works of art from the fields of literature, music, visual arts, photography, and film. Some of the contributions present creative interpretations of a variety of distinct art works in addition to the realization of theoretical reflections on the interdependence of arts, phenomenology, and social science. This book features papers that were presented at the international and interdisciplinary conference Phenomenology, Social Sciences, and the Arts, held at the University of Konstanz, May 2009, in commemoration of philosopher and social scientist Alfred Schutz, the developer of phenomenologically oriented sociology. It will appeal to researchers, scholars, and students in phenomenology, social sciences, art theory, and the arts. ​

In recent decades, the historical social sciences have moved away from deterministic perspectives and increasingly embraced the interpretive analysis of historical process and social and political change. This shift has enriched the field but also led to a deadlock regarding the meaning and status of subjective knowledge. Cultural interpretivists struggle to incorporate subjective experience and the body into their understanding of social reality. In the early twentieth century, philosopher Alfred Schutz grappled with this very issue. Drawing on Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology and Max Weber’s historical sociology, Schutz pioneered the interpretive analysis of social life from an embodied perspective. However, the recent interpretivist turn, influenced by linguistic philosophies, discourse theory, and poststructuralism, has overlooked the insights of Schutz and other phenomenologists. This book revisits Schutz’s phenomenology and social theory, positioning them against contemporary problems in social theory and interpretive social science research. The book extends Schutz’s key concepts of relevance, symbol relations, theory of language, and lifeworld meaning structures. It outlines Schutz’s critical approach to the social distribution of knowledge and develops his nascent sociology and political economy of knowledge. This book will appeal to readers with interests in social theory, phenomenology, and the methods of interpretive social science, including historical sociology, cultural sociology, science and technology studies, political economy, and international relations.