CFP: Special Issue of the Austrian Journal of Sociology

CFP: Special Issue of the Austrian Journal of Sociology

(ÖZS – Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie)

*“Potentials of Pragmatist Social Theory. Contributions on the occasion of

the 150th anniversary of George Herbert Mead's birth”*

From the beginning the reception of American Pragmatism has shown striking

peculiarities and ambiguities. This holds especially true for the European

reception of Pragmatism. Here, it was conceived to be a kind of “logical

utilitarism” (Émile Durkheim), a “philosophy of the Dollar”, a shallow

American reception of Nietzsche (Georg Simmel) or the reduction of all

thought to *Herrschaftswissen *(knowledge of domination; Max Scheler).

Interesting similarities to other philosophical schools and/or mutual

influences – e.g. to phenomenology, vitalism, philosophical anthropology,

or the Durkheim School – were ignored.

These distorting interpretations of Pragmatism have determined its

discussion and reception in sociology down to the present day. On the one

hand, authors like George Herbert Mead and Charles Horton Cooley have been

canonized as sociological classics since the 1970s. Especially, Symbolic

Interactionism refers to Mead and secured his place in sociological

consciousness. On the other hand, one can hardly find an accurate treament

of Mead’s and Cooley’s basic ideas in contemporary sociological textbooks.

Often, the colloquial and the sociological meaning of the terms

“pragmatist” and “pragmatic” are blurred by ascribing an exclusive focus on

usefulness and utility to Pragmatism. Even the “renaissance of pragmatism”

since the end of the 1970s – closely linked to Richard Rorty’s seminal

study *Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature *– has to a great extent been

ignored by sociologists. Aside from Jürgen Habermas, the sociological

reception of pragmatism was marginal.

In recent years, however, the voices emphasizing the “incredible modernity”

(Hans Joas) of American pragmatism increase. Besides efforts to develop a

systematic Pragmatist theory of action (Joas), a growing number of

positions in social theory refer to and deal with Pragmatism – at present,

for example, the “praxis theories” of Bourdieu, Thévenot, Latour etc.

Furthermore, one can identify substantial similarities to current results

in the cognitive sciences such as Michael Tomasello's cognitive psychology

of culture. Additionally, more and more empirical studies in sociology make

use of pragmatist concepts – for instance, Jens Beckert in the area of

economic sociology.

The modernity of Pragmatism is – in the main – based on its anti-dualistic

impulse. Because of this impulse, Pragmatism attaches crucial sociological

importance to intersubjectivity, corporeity, creativity, and emotions –

topics alltogether neglected by sociology for a long time. More

consequently than other Pragmatists, Mead applies this anti-dualistic

perspective to the relation of the individual and society. This explains

the particular relevance of his work to sociology which has been burdened

with dualistic conceptions from its beginning. According to Mead, humans

are intrinsically social beings who develop self-consciousness only through

social interaction and communication. On this basis, individuals develop

the possibility to reflect on their own actions and their social

environment. In this way they become able to intentionally form their

social interrelations and to re-organize them when faced with problems

which permanently arise in society.

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of George Herbert Mead's birth in

2013 the Austrian Journal of Sociology (Österreichische Zeitschrift für

Soziologie – ÖZS) will publish a special issue to explore the potentials of

pragmatist social theory. The volume aims at the systematic and creative

continuation and development of sociological Pragmatism. We invite

contributions to the following topics:

• critical discussions of the sociological and philosophical foundations of

Pragmatism,

• analyses of important approaches to Pragmatist theory of sociality and

society (e.g. Herbert Blumer, Anselm Strauss, David R. Maines, Richard

Bernstein, Hans Joas or others),

• studies on possible “synergy effects” with current findings in

psychology, anthropology and the cognitive sciences, •discussions of

Pragmatist elements in other sociological approaches, similarities

and differences to competing perspectives, • examples of empirical

Pragmatist social research and Pragmatist philosophy of science,

• evaluations of the potentials of Pragmatism for normative social theory

and social criticism.

The editors of the volume invite authors to submit papers which critically

discuss Pragmatist thought in sociology and/or make a contribution to its

further development. In particular, contributions which deal with Mead`s

social theory and philosophy are welcomed.

Please, submit your abstracts (300 – 500 words) until May 18th, 2012.

Feedback will be given until May 31st. The length of articles should not

exceed 55,000 characters including spaces. The deadline for submitting the

papers is November 30th, 2012. Papers will be subjected to a blind review

process by two peers.

Please send the abstracts to the editors:

*Frithjof Nungesser*, University of Graz and Max Weber Center, University

of Erfurt: frithjof.nungesser@uni-graz.at *Franz Ofner*, University of

Klagenfurt: franz.ofner@chello.at