Search

The article deals with the construct of cosmic Christianity in Mircea Eliade's project of the history of religion. Links are established with other concepts of the author, such as creative hermeneutics, homo religiosus, the horror of history, etc. Parallels are also drawn with German Idealism, Protestantism, traditionalism, Jungian psychoanalysis, and conservative-revolutionary thought. The criticism of A. Lenel-Lavastin and D. Dubuisson is drawn upon, arguing that the construct of cosmic Christianity can work within a national-conservative synthesis, so that the nation becomes the guarantor of the purity of church tradition. Eliade's method by which he contrasts cosmic Christianity with Judeo-Christian messianism is discussed. As part of the concept of cosmic Christianity the implicit use of the author's original concept of tradition as a virtual chain of initiations is found. Eliade's assembly is viewed through the lens of P. Berger's social constructivism. It is argued that Berger bases his theory of secularization on Eliade's working definition of religion and concept of cosmization. The metaphysical opposition of Eliade's vital immanentism to Berger's transcendentalism is stated. Immanentism is correlated with the traditional and archetypal folk re-evaluation within cosmic Christianity, transcendentalism with the radical and historical interpretation of the Gospel in Lutheran theology. Eliade's history of religion is characterized as a modernist theory, with inherent qualities of M. such as: a desire for a totalizing worldview, an interest in building a synthetic ideology on the border of archaic myth and scientific knowledge, a sense of the removal of the divine and an acceleration of the end of history. A connection is established between Eliade's theory of religion and the metaphysical framework of the "natural" in Modern science and culture. The reality of the sacred is characterized as a living self-organizing system, and its manifestation as a hierophany of the natural. The conclusion is made that the essentialism and naturalism of such metaphysics do not allow the history of religion to transcend the categories of Modern science and culture, which, according to the author of the article, was the goal of Eliade's project.

Abstract Nigeria is facing the problem of soil degradation as a result of continuous deposition of spent oil in the soil. The physiochemical properties, including heavy metals concentrations, of spent oil contaminated soils and adjacent control soils were investigated at 0–15 and 15–30 cm depths at Ladipo and Berger auto-mobile Markets in Lagos, southwest Nigeria. The soils were collected in triplicate and analyzed in a 2 (location) * 2 (study site) * 2 (soil depth) factorial experiment. The results showed a uniform soil texture in both study sites and at both soil depths, with loamy sand at Ladipo and sandy loam at Berger. Bulk density was significantly decreased, while the total porosity (46.44%), organic C (21.79 g kg− 1), available P (16.48 mg kg− 1), Na+ (0.72 cmolc kg− 1) and K+ (0.81 cmolc kg− 1) increased in the contaminated site compared to the control site. Soil pH was higher at Ladipo (8.4) than at Berger (7.4). However, the soil pH and available P concentration decreased in the contaminated soil compared to the control at both locations, resulting in a decrease in available P concentration of more than 300% and 100% at Ladipo and Berger, respectively. At the Ladipo location, the concentration of Ca2+ was higher in the control than in the contaminated counterpart, while the opposite was true at the Berger location. The concentrations of the heavy metals Pb and Zn in the contaminated soils were low, while the Cu concentration was high. Although the concentrations of these heavy metals were below the standards for potential environmental risks, the high Cu concentration at both locations poses a potential ecological risk and may affect soil and human health as Cu accumulates in critical levels in the soil due to the continued irresponsible disposal of spent oil on the ground.

Nigeria is facing the problem of soil degradation as a result of continuous deposition of spent oil in the soil. The physiochemical properties, including heavy metals concentrations, of spent oil contaminated soils and adjacent control soils were investigated at 0–15 and 15–30 cm depths at Ladipo and Berger auto-mobile Markets in Lagos, southwest Nigeria. The soils were collected in triplicate and analyzed in a 2 (location) * 2 (study site) * 2 (soil depth) factorial experiment. The results showed a uniform soil texture in both study sites and at both soil depths, with loamy sand at Ladipo and sandy loam at Berger. Bulk density was significantly decreased, while the total porosity (46.44%), organic C (21.79 g kg− 1), available P (16.48 mg kg− 1), Na+ (0.72 cmolc kg− 1) and K+ (0.81 cmolc kg− 1) increased in the contaminated site compared to the control site. Soil pH was higher at Ladipo (8.4) than at Berger (7.4). However, the soil pH and available P concentration decreased in the contaminated soil compared to the control at both locations, resulting in a decrease in available P concentration of more than 300% and 100% at Ladipo and Berger, respectively. At the Ladipo location, the concentration of Ca2+ was higher in the control than in the contaminated counterpart, while the opposite was true at the Berger location. The concentrations of the heavy metals Pb and Zn in the contaminated soils were low, while the Cu concentration was high. Although the concentrations of these heavy metals were below the standards for potential environmental risks, the high Cu concentration at both locations poses a potential ecological risk and may affect soil and human health as Cu accumulates in critical levels in the soil due to the continued irresponsible disposal of spent oil on the ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research conducts a cognitive linguistic analysis of humorous techniques in "The Nut Job" which discusses some themes regarding unity, friendship, selfishness, and searching for power. Davis (2019) points out that humor contributes to understanding social, political, ironical, and satirical attitudes. Thereupon, the current research adopts the theoretical framework of Berger (2014) which sheds light upon irony, satire, parallelism, and paradox as elements of humorous techniques. Furthermore, the study adopts a multimodal analysis since it combines syntactic manipulations with literary devices in "The Nut Job". More clearly, this multimodal approach detects phraseological and clausal levels in attaining irony, satire, paradox, and repetition. Methodologically, the research follows a quantitative--qualitative approach. Data is collected from the "The Nut Job". The study concludes that irony, paradox, satire, and repetition are triggered by NPs and VPs. Furthermore, the syntactic complementation of the uncertainty verb "think" are proved to be of great help to achieve some themes of "The Nut Job". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1924, at the University Hospital of Jena, Hans Berger first recorded an electrical brain signal in humans. This discovery revolutionized clinical neuroscience and neurotechnology, as it contributed to both electrophysiology and the development of the electroencephalogram (EEG). This article provides a historical overview of Hans Berger's seminal contributions, highlighting the importance of his early recordings, the motivations that drove him, and the scientific problems he had to initiate and solve, in a historical context of profoundly changing circumstances. He also faced low acceptance of his works initially, and only belatedly did they become accepted by the scientific community. Berger was known to be a humble but tenacious person who believed in his convictions to the core, and this strength of will is an example of passion for students and scholars of neuroscience. NEW & NOTEWORTHY In 1924, at the University Hospital in Jena, Hans Berger first recorded human brain electrical signals, revolutionizing clinical neurophysiology and neurotechnology. He developed the electroencephalogram (EEG) and identified alpha waves in the human scalp. Although initially met with skepticism, his work was later recognized as fundamental. Berger's perseverance and conviction in his research serve as an inspiring example of dedication for students and scientists in neuroscience.

The phenomenological paradigm in sociocultural research is the relay race of Husserl — Schütz — Luckmann and Berger. Despite the first difference between sociology and phenomenology, the emphasis on design, biography, historical context, subjectivity and experience only complement quantitative research with the necessary quality of humanism. Today, when technocratic line is becoming a leading trend, when people talk about neuro-turnaround in science and social practices, phenomenology must be given credit for its courage in sociocultural subjectivity and the actualization of the philosophy of consciousness. Scientometric absorption of the subject is a dangerous way of deflation of philosophy, its reduction to the functional support of the brain-machine interface. The sociocultural phenomenologist Peter Berger (1929–2017) died a year after the demise of his and co-author Thomas Luckmann. Last year there was also jubilee of the founder of phenomenology, Edmund Husserl, who turned 160 years old. The scientometric absorption of the subject is a dangerous way of deflation of philosophy, its reduction to the functional support of the brain-machine interface. The study of the heritage of P. Berger in this regard allows us to proceed to the efficient processing of Husserl’s ideas in the field of describing the valuesemantic world of society and culture. The author proceeds with the study of the model of the socio-cultural and anthropological world, constructed by Peter Ludwig Berger. The subject of the research is the theoretical framework of the phenomenology of society and culture. The main provisions of Berger’s sociocultural phenomenology are: 1) secularization has a heterogeneous porous structure, 2) under capitalism, transcendence is possible as a personal spiritual practice; 3) pluralism of social orders and globalization are the basis for restrained forecasts regarding the society of the future; 4) the clash of bureaucracy and the private is removed by the daily routine of meaning generation. Pursuing issues of the privatization of religion, the theory of modernization, the sociology of knowledge, Berger’s sociocultural phenomenology turns everyday life into a fascinating scientific quest. He easily moves from concrete to abstract and vice versa, but does not throw the reader into the abyss of lifeless ideas. At the same time, the sociologist makes it clear that he is ready to change his mind, he does not close us in a rigid configuration of ideas, yet places the reader in the bootstrap reality. Berger remained in phenomenological position, describing social structures in terms of construction, typification, collective understanding, legitimization of social memory, horizons of reality, habitualization of meanings, reification of meanings, objectification of the lifeworld of utopias. Main conclusions. The sociocultural phenomenology of P. Berger allows you to value-correlate the sacrifices made by capitalism and communism to build a social order. His phenomenology is the method of contextual correlation of different social worlds — science and religion, secular and transcendental, personal and collective. Bergerian sociocultural subjectivism opposes the reduction of philosophy to the information support of a technogenic society and the maintenance of science.

O presente ensaio contém uma proposta de leitura crítica de O Riso Redentor de Peter Berger, obra na qual nos dedicamos a entender a abordagem que o autor faz do material do Novo Testamento para construir sua teoria sobre a relação entre a transcendência e a comicidade. Em seguida, realiza-se no artigo uma avaliação crítica dessa leitura que Berger fez dos evangelhos e de textos do apóstolo Paulo. Para que essa avaliação fosse realizada, utilizamos a obra Humor escrita recentemente por Terry Eagleton, que chega a conclusões significativamente semelhantes ao conteúdo proposto por Berger em seu livro, sobretudo, no que diz respeito à relação entre transcendência e comicidade.

Copyright of Escritura e Imagen is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objective: HIV-related stigma towards people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) creates a barrier in access to quality health care, affects mental health and leads to poor treatment adherence. Assessment of different components of HIV-related stigma is needed to develop appropriate strategies for prevention and intervention. The aim of this study was to translate and adapt Berger HIV Stigma Scale to Turkish and assess its reliability and validity. Method: The Turkish version of the 40 item, 4-point Likert-type self-report HIV Stigma Scale, as well as Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) and sociodemographic data form were administered to 95 PLWHA. Results: The items of the scale whose face validity was found to be sufficient, were loaded on four factors in the explanatory factor analysis: Internalised Stigmatization (16 items); Concerns with Public Attitudes (12 items); Negative Self Image (9 items); and Disclosure Concerns (8 items). This structure explained 46.71% of the variance after an item was removed based on the analysis. All subscales had acceptable internal consistency with Cronbach's alpha coefficients .802-.934. BDE scores had moderate positive correlations with Internalized Stigmatization; Concerns with Public Attitudes; Disclosure Concerns subscale scores (rs=0.214, p=0.047; rs=0.295, p=0.006; rs=0.353, p=0.001), and strong positive correlations with Negative Self Image score (rs=0.617, p<0.001). A moderate positive correlation was found between RSES and Negative Self Image subscale score (rs=0.434; p<0.001). Conclusion: Our findings showed that the Turkish form of Berger HIV Stigma Scale is a reliable and valid tool for measuring HIV-related stigma in PLWHA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Par l’étude comparée de la trilogie Dans leur travail de John Berger et de la Trilogie des rives d’Emmanuelle Pagano, cet article entreprend de penser la relation entre « attention » et « impli­­cation », dans une écriture attachée aux représentations du monde agricole et de la nature. L’enquête, la recherche, la documentation sont autant de procédés qui permettent de faire communauté, rassemblant l’auteur, les lecteurs et les protagonistes du récit. Une poétique de la veille, de l’astreinte se développe, à mettre en regard aux pratiques actuelles du terrain, en anthropologie notamment. With a comparative study of John Berger’s trilogy Dans leur travail and Emmanuelle Pagano’s Trilogie des rives, this paper aims to reflect on the link between ‘attention’ and ‘implication’ in a writing that is attached to agrarian and natural representations. Investigation, research and documentation are tools to create a community that gathers the author, readers and the characters of the story. A poetic of a developing vigil and on-call duty are to be balanced with actual practices within the field, especially within anthropology.

Bibliographic review.

A familiarity with common approaches to the wrist and their associated anatomy is essential for any surgeon operating in this area. Such knowledge reduces the likelihood of iatrogenic injury to adjacent structures; enabling the surgeon to progress purposefully and with confidence through an operation, to reveal underlying pathology. Furthermore, it is a favourite topic for the fellowship examiner. This article provides a description of the common dorsal, volar, radial and ulnar approaches to the carpus and distal radius. Safe corridors for external fixation are also considered. Additionally, clinical pearls are included for each approach, to enable the surgeon to avoid common pitfalls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Swimming, like reading, is an immersive activity: words wash away, and words arise. Engaging with writings by critics who are also swimmers, principally John Berger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, this article explores their writings about swimming in relation to how being in water can ‘conjure stories from the water’, and open up particular kinds of reflection and reverie. The fluidity of water spaces creates an imaginary that enables intellectually sensuous dreaming, while the ebb and flow of movements and identifications establish a poetics of swimming as a form of life writing.

This paper reviews the articles by John Berger published in the book About looking. In this sense, this production is chronologically examined. In this way three production moments would be observed. The first moment marked by the imprint of Cubism –in so much symbolic revolution– in modern culture and the debates of British Marxism about the working class, culture in the mass media and the use of a suitable language in order to achieve The greatest possible number of accessions for democratic political action. A second moment of active participation in the social debate publishing in New Society and making the program of television emitted by the BBC. In these interventions he not only insists on the need for political action but also tries to explain the field in which this action takes place (an outline of Bourdieu's theories accompanies those arguments) and, above all, clearly exposes the role Of the spectator as a consequence of the revolution in the symbolic that led the Cubism. Finally, in a third moment, the theoretical scaffolding used to analyze the development of what we call culture annexes the concepts of aura and experience of W. Benjamin and hegemony of A. Gramsci. In this way he describes the end of an era, modernity, and the continuity of history in something unnamed that sees as a consequence of the pre-eminence of "high finance."

Translation of article of faith of John Berger.

Copyright of Stvdium (2444-6599) is the property of Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

(CSDA) ranges for electrons in the elements Calcium , Potassium and Phosphor in terms of energy (0.01 - 10) MeV have been studied by using two empirical formula of Berger-Seltzer and Tabata et al respectively . These two parameters depend upon the atomic number (Z) of the absorber and incident electron energy E. It has been found that these formulae gives better agreement with the available data of Estar universal code. In this paper ,we present the results of Radiative Energy Loss and continuous slowing down approximation

In Guimarães Rosa's poetic-symbolic universe the ox or bull has a privileged seat. The writer's work is traversed by the moo, roaring and bellowing of the cattle, their mood and peculiar existence, their immemorial wisdom. Rosa's ox comes from afar. Sprung from the religious substratum of the most ancient civilizations - Assyrie, Babylon, India, Egypt - the ox makes its appearance in Rosa's mythopoetic environment, supplied with its sacred and long-lived heritage. Likewise, the shepherd devoted to it is not simply the man who pastures the cattle. He is the bukólos or bubulcus, descending from the primordial shepherds of Aegean Crete, who is invested with priestly functions and endowed with poetic gifts. To put these issues in evidence the present essay interprets two stories of Tutaméia, Rosa's last published book: "The three men and the ox of the three men who made up an ox" and "Hiatus". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Le voyage est une métaphysique, une « philosophie première ». Car le voyage fait l’homme entrer dans la conscience première du monde, dans l’esprit de sa Genèse. L’expérience du voyage est, avant tout, un questionnement ontologique qui met l’Être à la recherche de son essence et de ses principes fondateurs dans le tréfonds de la substance spatiale et temporelle ; le voyage représente donc un désir de connaissance des plus originaux et des moins artificiels. La naissance du voyageur prend ses motifs, d’abord, de ces eaux lustrales, de cette immersion originelle dans les profondeurs de la pureté aquatique ; puis, ce corps naissant des eaux s’élit, se libère et se forge une identité fondée sur la fureur du vent et de l’aérien. Le voyageur, dans tout trajet ontologique et existentiel, passe de la métaphore de l’aquatique à la métaphore de l’aérien. En effet, la colère du voyageur, pratiquée au stade de la conscience aérienne, l’introduit dans l’expérience du Berger, toujours asocial et nomade.

“Réflexions pour 1985”, a prospective report published in 1964, envisaged what France might look like in 1985. This essay argues the blend of “probable” and “desirable” in its imagined vision of the future reveals an agenda of enforcing social compliance with its techno-scientific assumptions. To test such an assessment of the text, this essay offers a study of the shaping factors and shaping actors of the report, before analysing the language of the report itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I engage in a theological and missional reflection on the European migrant crisis of 2015-16. Using a variety of lenses - peacemaking, story telling, hospitality, liminality, and incarnational presence - I seek to establish ways of exploring not only how I have responded to this issue but, more importantly, how I have been shaped and informed by the experience of working with a particular refugee community, that of the Calais 'Jungle'. This has led me to critique and sharpen some of the models I had been working with in a way that I maintain could make them richer, deeper, and more reflexive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to discuss how the concept of anxiety acts at the intersection between a certain moment of the work of Peter L. Berger and the central thesis of The protestant ethics, from Max Weber. On the one hand, it seeks to examine how Berger uses this concept in order to analyze the work of social construction of reality and the persistent shadow that accompanies it in the form of a "crisis of meaning". On the other, it emphasizes how this crisis of meaning, directly linked by Berger to the psychic condition of anxiety, is closely related to the thesis developed by Weber in his best known work, where the ideal-typical modern individual, that is, the Calvinist, is described as an anxious subject precisely because crossed by a failure in his attempt to endow life with a univocal meaning. Finally, in a comparative work, it is analyzed displacements and reformulations that hinder a naive identification between both projects. Thereby, the article brings to light a little-studied chapter of the relationship between phenomenological sociology and Max Weber's theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a comparative analysis of the film Snow White by Pablo Berger, in 2012 and the homonymous story by the Brothers Grimm, in 1812. It consists of an introduction about the historical and literary background of Snow White's character, an analysis of the staging (characters, space, time, costumes, makeup, lighting, sets, expression and movement), cinematography, the plane, the scene and edited sequences, as well as sound. All this, in order to clarify the interest of the character of Snow White throughout history and the intentionality, in general, that moves authors to choose this iconic female character as the protagonist of their works and in particular, the intention of Pablo Berger in using Snow White in his silent film in black and white two thousand years later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the merits of a sociology informed by humour, linking these merits to sociological issues of representation and the ways in which humour has pedagogical and epistemological relevance for the depiction and construction of the everyday lifeworld. The works of Erving Goffman, C. Wright Mills, and Peter Berger are treated as exemplifying the use of humour in sociological work. Significantly, while having different perspectives on the social world, they all worked within a particular milieu (post-war American sociology) and enjoyed a readership beyond the confines of academic sociology. We argue that humour is an essential element of the everyday lifeworld and that sociology's task is to highlight the contradictions, paradoxes and ironies in which ordinary social actors live. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is aimed to rethinking the theory of social construction of P. Berger and T. Luckmann in the context of digital society. The conception of virtual reality helps to find new traits of the world in everyday life: intersubjectivity, temporality, schemes of typification and other social-constructivist concepts that receive new meanings. The author proposes to research the way of the world transformation “here and now” in the age of virtualization of social acts, and how these changes effect human social nature and reflective processes.

Cet article examine le traitement de l’histoire mythique par le roman Soledad entretenida, œuvre unique d’un auteur andalou du XVIIe siècle. Cette histoire, ramenée à la Frontière qui sépare terres chrétienne et musulmane, comporte plusieurs strates, également mises en valeur dans l’historiographie générale et locale : Romains, Goths et Reconquête. Rare – unique ? – roman de la période dont l’action est située dans un passé éloigné, il fictionnalise des problématiques également présentes dans l’historiographie locale, comme la relation entre pouvoir local et central, et exalte l’héroïsme historique des localités de l’ancienne Frontière. Cette mise en fiction des passés, puisque plusieurs strates sont mobilisées, s’accompagne d’une refonctionalisation de modèles romanesques, avec une préférence pour des modèles tombés en désuétude : la pastorale et l’héroïsme guerrier.

In what way can social action be simultaneously inquired into and ethically evaluated by social theory? This paper explores the responsibility sociology has with regard to the political and ethical implications of its knowledge production and does so through a case study examination of the sociological concept of role. It compares and evaluates the different orientations that ground the concept of role and Arendt's concept of action, which is then expanded to address the critique of the social sciences by theorists like Arendt and Foucault. The paper engages a particular tradition of reflexive sociology in the context of the danger of banal evil (Eichmann) and in the context of modern structures of domination that makes that danger more prevalent. Arguing that a theoretical non-empirical reflexivity is called for, and drawing on the phenomenological reflexivity of Berger and the constitutive reflexivity of Blum and McHugh, the paper seeks to demonstrate the need for a reflexive awareness of the actor's responsibility for action and the theorist's responsibility for formulating action that can make conceptual space for reasoned evaluation oriented by and to principle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces the eventful legacy of The Social Construction of Reality, by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann, which has been widely acclaimed as a classic text in sociology, but also has been subject to glaring and persistent misinterpretations. The paper discusses the inception and significance of the title along with the principal arguments of the authors’ work. The main achievements and shortfalls of the intellectual project behind the book are considered. The paper also introduces the contents of a special issue of Cultural Sociology to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the book’s publication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on Berger and Luckmann’s discussion of reification, this paper examines the five aspects of essentialism that make the social construction of a seemingly objective reality possible. The five aspects are religion (as typically manifested in the idea of ‘God’), science (as typically manifested in the idea of ‘Nature’), reason (as typically manifested in the notion of ‘Logic’), universalism (as typically manifested in the notion of ‘Everybody’), and eternalism (as typically manifested in the notion of ‘Always’). They constitute the foundations of the process of making the merely intersubjective and conventional seem objective and inevitable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First published in 1966, The Social Construction of Reality, by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann, marked the beginning of a significant transformation in social theory and the sociology of knowledge. In this interview Luckmann relates the working dynamic of writing the book four-handed and details his further collaborations with Berger. He then describes their expectations on the possible impact of the book and his view on how it was actually received. The interview concludes with Luckmann noting some misunderstandings of so-called ‘constructivism’ and clarifying the intended meaning of the term social construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sociology of knowledge that followed The Social Construction of Reality shifted from the study of rarified ideas to practical activity, focusing on the stabilization of a sense of shared reality. The opposite side of this shift in emphasis has received much less attention – activities that place reality into a state of play and, in so doing, call attention to its ephemerality. I discuss three empirical areas where the practical use of other realities is central to the sociology of knowledge. First, I document cases in which skilled practitioners, such as airline pilots, safety engineers, and athletes, use simulation to prepare for events that are understood as highly uncertain and risky. Next, I describe how other realities are mobilized epistemologically, such as through experimentation in technoscience and experimentalism in unrealized or ‘unbuilt’ art and architecture. Finally, I consider autotelic and transcendent social experiences through fantasy and technological mediations like augmented realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this interview, Peter Berger, co-author of The Social Construction of Reality, reflects on the making and reception of the book half a century after its first publication. It begins with Berger describing the plans he had with Thomas Luckmann for ultimately unwritten sections of the book and the unfulfilled project of a second book co-authored by them. He answers some questions on the intended meaning of the concept construction, on the intellectual and extra-theoretical elements that influenced the book, and on the connections between his sociology of knowledge and his later work on religion and economic development. The interview moves on to explore Berger’s current work in the development of a ‘theory of pluralism.’ Finally, Berger ponders on his long-lasting but tense relationship with the discipline of sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although objects and buildings form an integral part of the reality of everyday life, they have seldom been explicitly discussed in social theory. This article starts by exploring how various classical approaches relate the social to the material world in order to show, in a second step, how this can be done with the help of the ‘new sociology of knowledge’ formulated by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann in 1966. Central in this effort is the concept of ‘material objectivations’. Drawing on Émile Durkheim’s first and most basic rule of sociological thought, according to which sociologists should consider social facts as things, I pose the question: what happens when this rule is reversed and things are conceptualized as social facts or – to use the terminology of Berger and Luckmann – as material ‘objectivations’? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper emphasizes the specific theoretical potential of Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann’s The Social Construction of Reality for an analysis of the construction and constitution of power. In contrast to certain criticisms, as formulated for example by Pierre Bourdieu, which reproach the authors for being oblivious of power, it is shown that Berger and Luckmann’s theoretical apparatus indeed offers the possibility to reconstruct established power structures as part of objective reality. Furthermore, the authors open up a distinct perspective from which to systematically analyze the subjective dimension of power constitution with reference to the subjective reality of the individual actor. We argue that the investigation of power inevitably needs to be based on the idea of the dialectical relationship of objective and subjective reality. Moreover, this paper shows that it is specifically the subjective dimension of power constitution based on systems of relevance that allows for an explanation of the resistance to established power structures on the part of the individual actor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I bring Berger and Luckmann’s The Social Construction of Reality into conversation with the relatively new subfield of the sociology of the senses to argue that greater attentiveness to sensory perception can enhance our understanding of the mechanisms of the social construction of reality. When read with this sensitization, one finds implicit references to the senses throughout their discussion, but nowhere is sensory perception explicitly theorized as a part of the social construction process. Drawing specifically on their analysis of primary socialization, face-to-face interaction, language and relevance structures, and the fundamental dialectic of externalization, objectivation, and internalization, I demonstrate that processes of perceptual construction – specifically sensory attention and disattention – are key mechanism of social construction underlying many of Berger and Luckmann’s arguments. A more explicit focus on sensory perception not only clarifies and strengthens many of their observations, but also constitutes a renewal of their important call to examine the processes of social construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever since Berger and Luckmann published their treatment of the sociology of knowledge in 1966, older versions of the subfield have languished, been forgotten, or misrepresented, as if The Social Construction of Reality (SCR) eliminated the need to study its predecessors in Wissenssoziologie. By considering Berger’s subsequent statements about the book, along with remarks recently made by Luckmann, and then returning to the text itself, this article shows that some of the main suppositions on which SCR rests are foreign to the sociology of knowledge in its original forms, and that a number of these premises do not seem as plausible in today’s social world as they may have in the early 1960s when their authors formulated them. The unintended scholarly results of SCR’s surprising publishing success are evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ágora: Estudos Clássicos em Debate is the property of Agora: Estudos Classicos em Debate and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)