In "Anthropology and Social Theory" the award-winning
anthropologist Sherry B. Ortner draws on her longstanding interest
in theories of cultural practice to rethink key concepts of
culture, agency, and subjectivity for the social sciences of the
twenty-first century. The seven theoretical and interpretive essays
in this volume each advocate reconfiguring, rather than abandoning,
the concept of culture. Similarly, they all suggest that a theory
which depends on the interested action of social
beings--specifically practice theory, associated especially with
the work of Pierre Bourdieu--requires a more developed notion of
human agency and a richer conception of human subjectivity. Ortner
shows how social theory must both build upon and move beyond
classic practice theory in order to understand the contemporary
world.
Some of the essays reflect explicitly on theoretical concerns:
the relationship between agency and power, the problematic quality
of ethnographic studies of resistance, and the possibility of
producing an anthropology of subjectivity. Others are ethnographic
studies that apply Ortner's theoretical framework. In these, she
investigates aspects of social class, looking at the relationship
between race and middle-class identity in the United States, the
often invisible nature of class as a cultural identity and as an
analytical category in social inquiry, and the role that public
culture and media play in the creation of the class anxieties of
Generation X. Written with Ortner's characteristic lucidity, these
essays constitute a major statement about the future of social
theory from one of the leading anthropologists of our time.
General
Imprint: |
Duke University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
A John Hope Franklin Center Book |
Release date: |
November 2006 |
First published: |
November 2006 |
Authors: |
Sherry B. Ortner
|
Dimensions: |
165 x 252 x 23mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover - Cloth over boards
|
Pages: |
200 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8223-3811-6 |
Categories: |
Books >
Social sciences >
Sociology, social studies >
Anthropology >
General
|
LSN: |
0-8223-3811-4 |
Barcode: |
9780822338116 |
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