Sociology and the Real World

In this new book Lyng and Franks argue that contemporary sociology has lost its connection to human realities. Addressing the conceptual underpinnings of sociological practice, they argue that our warranted inhibitions about using the words: objectivity, reality and truth have been part of this loss of connection. The authors deconstruct these terms in modern and postmodern contexts, looking beyond these traditions. They then offer more coherent ways of reclaiming the lost terms by looking beyond dualistic contrasts and using a relational framework. This encourages a dialectic balance between objectivity and subjectivity helpful in addressing the world outside of sociology. The authors critique thought for thoughts sake seen as detached from embodied emotion and action on the world. They contend that as important as constant symbolic interpretation is, we are too often under the spell of our own words to even conceive of nonverbal realities. This is then applied to new ways of looking at an embodied sociology, Habermas's theory of communicative action and social problems.

Author Biography: Dr. Stephen Lyng is a professor of Anthropology at the Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. David D. Franks is a professor of Anthropology at the Virginia Commonwealth University.