In diesem Buch werden einige der wirkmächtigsten soziologischen Gegenwartsdiagnosen des 21. Jahrhunderts in ihren zentralen Aussagen in einzelnen Beiträgen vorgestellt und diskutiert. Dazu gehören prägnante Einführungen in die Werke von Autorinnen und Autoren wie Donna Haraway, Didier Eribon, Hartmut Rosa, Andreas Reckwitz oder Arlie Hochschild. Aus der Lektüre der verschiedenen Deutungsangebote ergibt sich ein eindrucksvolles Mosaik soziologischer Perspektiven auf die Gegenwart, das für Lehrende und Lernende gleichermaßen von Interesse ist.

Grundungsszenen sind Ankerpunkte soziologischen Theoretisierens: Als konkrete Bezugsprobleme stiften sie im weitesten Sinne des Wortes einen Realitatsbezug, der sich nicht in die Kategorien der methodisch kontrollierten Erhebung empirischer Tatbestande ubersetzen lasst. Sie konnen literarischen, biographischen oder anekdotischen Ursprungs sein und sind dennoch nicht blosses Decorum . Vielmehr verweisen sie auf den Erfahrungs- und Sinnhintergrund jeder theoretischen Abstraktion. Ihre Analyse ermoglicht die Reflektion narrativer Elemente in sozialwissenschaftlichen Texten und verdeutlicht den Prozess des Theoretisierens selbst. So entsteht eine alternative Form der Einfuhrung in das soziologische Denken. Der vorliegende Band rekonstruiert und diskutiert die Grundungsszenen verschiedener Autoren, darunter u.a. Pierre Bourdieu, Bruno Latour, Niklas Luhmann, Jurgen Habermas und Erving Goffman."

“Science in fiction,” “geek novels,” “lab-lit”—whatever one calls them, a new generation of science novels has opened a space in which the reading public can experience and think about the powers of science to illuminate nature as well as to generate and mitigate social change and risks. Under the Literary Microscope examines the implications of the discourse taking place in and around this creative space. Exploring works by authors as disparate as Barbara Kingsolver, Richard Powers, Ian McEwan, Ann Patchett, Margaret Atwood, and Michael Crichton, these essays address the economization of scientific institutions; ethics, risk, and gender disparity in scientific work; the reshaping of old stereotypes of scientists; science in an evolving sci-fi genre; and reader reception and potential contributions of the novels to public understandings of science. Under the Literary Microscope illuminates the new ways in which fiction has been grappling with scientific issues—from climate change and pandemics to artificial intelligence and genomics—and makes a valuable addition to both contemporary literature and science studies courses. In addition to the editors, the contributors include Anna Auguscik, Jay Clayton, Carol Colatrella, Sonja Fücker, Raymond Haynes, Luz María Hernández Nieto, Emanuel Herold, Karin Hoepker, Anton Kirchhofer, Antje Kley, Natalie Roxburgh, Uwe Schimank, Sherryl Vint, and Peter Weingart.

“Science in fiction,” “geek novels,” “lab-lit”—whatever one calls them, a new generation of science novels has opened a space in which the reading public can experience and think about the powers of science to illuminate nature as well as to generate and mitigate social change and risks. Under the Literary Microscope examines the implications of the discourse taking place in and around this creative space. Exploring works by authors as disparate as Barbara Kingsolver, Richard Powers, Ian McEwan, Ann Patchett, Margaret Atwood, and Michael Crichton, these essays address the economization of scientific institutions; ethics, risk, and gender disparity in scientific work; the reshaping of old stereotypes of scientists; science in an evolving sci-fi genre; and reader reception and potential contributions of the novels to public understandings of science. Under the Literary Microscope illuminates the new ways in which fiction has been grappling with scientific issues—from climate change and pandemics to artificial intelligence and genomics—and makes a valuable addition to both contemporary literature and science studies courses. In addition to the editors, the contributors include Anna Auguscik, Jay Clayton, Carol Colatrella, Sonja Fücker, Raymond Haynes, Luz María Hernández Nieto, Emanuel Herold, Karin Hoepker, Anton Kirchhofer, Antje Kley, Natalie Roxburgh, Uwe Schimank, Sherryl Vint, and Peter Weingart.