Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Sociology and the Real World

In this new book Lyng and Franks argue that contemporary sociology has lost its connection to human realities. Addressing the conceptual underpinnings of sociological practice, they argue that our warranted inhibitions about using the words: objectivity, reality and truth have been part of this loss of connection. The authors deconstruct these terms in modern and postmodern contexts, looking beyond these traditions. They then offer more coherent ways of reclaiming the lost terms by looking beyond dualistic contrasts and using a relational framework. This encourages a dialectic balance between objectivity and subjectivity helpful in addressing the world outside of sociology. The authors critique thought for thoughts sake seen as detached from embodied emotion and action on the world. They contend that as important as constant symbolic interpretation is, we are too often under the spell of our own words to even conceive of nonverbal realities. This is then applied to new ways of looking at an embodied sociology, Habermas's theory of communicative action and social problems. Review This book should be read by all sociologists and social scientists who are serious about understanding human group behavior, and who know full well that most questions invite 'it depends' kinds of answers.--Contemporary Sociology This is a useful and thoughtful book.--American Journal of Sociology An ambitious theoretical undertaking worthy of serious attention. Among the book's scholarly contributions is the sustained effort by Lyng and Franks to establish John Dewey's transactional perspective (clothed in modern garb) as a central feature of sociological investigation.--Gideon Sjoberg, Professor of Sociology at University of Texas at Austin In this carefully reasoned and passionately argued theoretical essay, Stephen Lyng and David D. Franks reclaim ideas - reality, objectivity, truth - that have become the "dirty words" of social thought. Drawing upon sources as diverse as postmodern theory, pragmatism, and neuroscience, they refuse to abandon these ideas to those who would put them to mindless rhetorical use in defense of a discredited positivism. Rather, they reconstruct the meaning of reality, objectivity, and truth in ways that will usefully reconnect sociology with the world it wants to study and influence. This is fresh, insightful theorizing outside the boxes in which so much contemporary social thought is confined.--John P. Hewitt, Professor of Sociology at University of Massachusetts at Amherst Lyng and Franks bring us back from the brink of postmodernist nihilism and through the murky temptations of formula sociology with the eternal promise of pragmatism. By focusing on transactions, the authors brilliantly show us a way to think about truth, objectivity, and reality that is both interesting and consistent with what we know about the human species. This fine volume will help us all in the move toward pragmatism that general sociology already displays.--David R. Maines, Professor and Chair of Sociology at Oakland University About the Author Dr. Stephen Lyng is professor of sociology at the Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. David D. Franks is professor of sociology at the Virginia Commonwealth University.