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Cultural Meanings and Social Institutions

Social Organization Through Language

  • Book
  • © 2019

Overview

  • Analyzes institutional domains through quantitative analyses of word meanings

  • Develops a model of how language, cultural meanings, self and identities, and roles are connected

  • Establishes that social institutions work as a bridge between individual definitions (of self and others) and broader societal functions

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

Keywords

About this book

Employing three methods of assessing meaning, this book demonstrates that the thousands of human identities in English coalesce into groups that are recognizable as role sets in the contemporary social institutions of economy, kinship, religion, polity, law, education, medicine, sport, and arts. After establishing a theoretical and a methodological framework for his empirical work, David Heise presents the results obtained when meanings are assessed via dictionary definitions, collocates, and word associations. A close comparison of the results reveals that similar outcomes are obtained through each of these three different approaches of defining meaning. The final chapter summarizes the study, considers the benefits and limitations of studying society via language, and applies the results to describing how individuals operate social institutions via their daily social interactions. Aspects of this book will be of interest to social psychologists, sociologists, and linguists.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, USA

    David R. Heise

About the author

David R. Heise is Rudy Professor of Sociology Emeritus, Indiana University, USA, and has previously served as editor of the journals Sociological Methodology and Sociological Methods & Research. His social psychological research focuses on the affective and logical foundations of social interaction. Heise has received Distinguished Career awards from four sections of the American Sociological Association—Social Psychology, Sociology of Emotions, Mathematical Sociology, and Methodology—and from the International Academy for Intercultural Research.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Cultural Meanings and Social Institutions

  • Book Subtitle: Social Organization Through Language

  • Authors: David R. Heise

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03739-0

  • Publisher: Palgrave Pivot Cham

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG, part of Springer Nature 2019

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-03738-3Published: 03 January 2019

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-03739-0Published: 14 December 2018

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XI, 124

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Social Theory, Sociological Theory, Methodology of the Social Sciences, Research Methodology, Sociology of Culture

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