This Palgrave Handbook showcases how the phenomenological approach, especially but not only as developed by Alfred Schutz, can make important contributions to the theoretical analysis of macro-social phenomena such as the state, history, culture and interculturality, class relations and struggles, social movements and protests, capitalism, democracy, and digitalization processes. It gathers systematically and intellectual-historically oriented chapters that deal with these macro social phenomena from a phenomenological perspective. This handbook is mainly intended for a threefold audience: sociologists and social scientists at large – both theoretically and empirically oriented –, phenomenological sociologists, and phenomenological philosophers. This book includes chapters by international renowned specialists in social theory, phenomenological sociology, and phenomenology: Hartmut Rosa (University of Jena), Michael Barber (St. Louis University), Thomas Eberle (University of St. Gallen), Roberto Walton (Universidad de Buenos Aires), Jochen Dreher (University of Konstanz), Chung-Chi YU (National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan), and George Bondor (AI.I. Cuza University of Iasi, Romania), among others.

A Treatise in Phenomenological Sociology: Object, Method, Findings, and Applications provides the first systematic approach to phenomenological sociology. Carlos Belvedere claims that phenomenological sociology is a distinctive paradigm endowed with its peculiar object, method, and stock of knowledge. He defines phenomenological sociology as a science dealing with the natural attitude of groups. When it comes to its method, he describes the actual, centenary use of the epoche, the eidetic variation, and constitutional analysis in the practice of classical and contemporary social thinkers. Finally, he collects a wealth of precious findings in the history of phenomenological sociology, which starts with the ego agens as the substratum of social life, then goes on to consider intermediate stages such as pragmata, habitualities, social personalities, and institutions. He argues that social behavior can take different forms, subjective as well as objective, because it can experience a wide range of transformations thanks to specific qualities of pragmata, such as reiterableness and transferability.

Racism and Discourse in Latin America investigates how public discourse is involved in the daily reproduction of racism in Latin America. The essays examine political discourse, mass media discourse, textbooks and other forms of text, and talk by the white symbolic elites, looking at the ways these discourses express and confirm prejudices against indigenous people and against people from African descent. The essays show that ethnic and racial inequality in Latin America continue to exacerbate the chasm between the rich and the poor, despite formal progress in the rights of minorities during the last decades. Teun A. van Dijk brings together a multidisciplinary team of linguists and social scientists from eight Latin American countries (Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru), creating the first work in English that provides comprehensive insight into discursive racism across Latin America.

Racism and Discourse in Latin America investigates how public discourse is involved in the daily reproduction of racism in Latin America. The essays examine political discourse, mass media discourse, textbooks and other forms of text, and talk by the white symbolic elites, looking at the ways these discourses express and confirm prejudices against indigenous people and against people from African descent. The essays show that ethnic and racial inequality in Latin America continue to exacerbate the chasm between the rich and the poor, despite formal progress in the rights of minorities during the last decades. Teun A. van Dijk brings together a multidisciplinary team of linguists and social scientists from eight Latin American countries (Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru), creating the first work in English that provides comprehensive insight into discursive racism across Latin America.