ISI Library

Other title information: Perspectives on intersubjectivity

Annotation: The cognitive and language sciences are increasingly oriented towards the social dimension of human cognition and communication. The hitherto dominant approach in modern cognitive science has viewed social cognition through the prism of the traditional philosophical puzzle of how individuals solve the problem of understanding Other Minds. The Shared Mind challenges the conventional theory of mind approach, proposing that the human mind is fundamentally based on intersubjectivity: the sharing of affective, conative, intentional and cognitive states and processes between a plurality of subjects. The socially shared, intersubjective foundation of the human mind is manifest in the structure of early interaction and communication, imitation, gestural communication and the normative and argumentative nature of language. In this path breaking volume, leading researchers from psychology, linguistics, philosophy and primatology offer complementary perspectives on the role of intersubjectivity in the context of human development, comparative cognition and evolution, and language and linguistic theory.

Identifier: 9789027239068

Status: Available

Other title information: Studies on Communication, Institution, and Social Interaction

Notes: Based on a conference held Dec. 1987 at the Central Institute of Indian Languages in Mysore, India.

Annotation: This book is a collection of original articles which endeavours to expand the scope of the theoretical views and empirical research Erving Goffman contributed to the social sciences. Most chapters take a critical stand toward his ideas while still recognizing his fundamental contribution to the field. Hence, the title Beyond Goffman. The book is divided into two parts. The first concentrates upon theory and explores Goffman's intellectual heritage (symbolic interactionism, phenomenology, the notion of social situation, the relation between micro and macro levels of analysis) and also examines the way his work relates to contemporary theoretical movements (semiotics, postmodernism, deconstructionism, and feminism). The second part of the book probes the insights found in his diverse empirical studies and expands the domain of their applications.

Identifier: 3110122081

Status: Available

Annotation: In this major work, informed by materials from several disciplines and theoretical orientations, the author develops a distinctive new account of the theory of ideology and relates it to the analysis of culture and mass communication in modern societies.In the two centuries since is first appeared in France, the concept of ideology has undergone many transformations. It has been twisted, reformulated, recast, and finally filtered back into the everyday language of social and political life. Although there is much that is misleading and erroneous in the traditions of ideology, the author shows that it still defines a terrain of analysis that remains central to contemporary social sciences and continues to be the site of lively theoretical debate.The key to his analysis is what he terms the "mediazation" of the culture—the general process by which the transmission of symbolic forms becomes increasingly reliant on the technical and institutional apparatuses of the media industries. Building on the work of Geertz and others, the author asserts that symbolic forms are embedded in such structured social contexts as power relations, forms of conflict, and inequalities in the distribution of resources, and that any discussion of mass communication must embrace its political as well as epistemological content.

Identifier: 0745600816

Status: Available