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The article presents a re-reading of Max Weber's sociology based on Brian Epstein's anchor individualism. After presenting Gert Albert's thesis on Weber's ontology, we reconstruct, in its broad outlines, the concepts of anchoring and grounding in Epstein's individualistic ontology. We thus demonstrate that for Weber the social level is "anchored" in individuals conceived in their double dimension as bio-psychological and cultural beings. Regarding the "grounding" of the social, we show that the concept of meaningful action can be read as a form of mental projection that finds its collective translation in the dimension of institutionalized social relations [Social Order]. In this way, the relationship between the institutional level and the individual level is not thought of in terms of direct causation, but as "dependence" [grouding]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes that the datification of the processes recognition changes how the subjects relate to the world and to their own identities. The sociology of communication often treats digital platforms as potential amplifiers of the voices of historically silenced groups that struggle to be recognized in their different dimensions by society. Starting from an alternative perspective, with a focus on the datification processes that cross these platforms, the article proposes a reflection on the modes and logics that permeate the recognition processes occurring on Facebook, Twitter and other similar platforms. Ultimately, the work suggests that the processes of surveillance, metrification and processing online sociability, within the current economic logics, restrict expressive possibilities of the subject that do not fit into individualized models of self-promotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the articles that make up the dossier, the organizers reflect on different ways of conceiving and carrying out an existential sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the concept of "word of daily life", one of the most important contributions of A. Schutz's "phenomenological sociology" to contemporary social theory. We argue that the fundamental premise of this concept refers primarily to the question of action (the flow of activities always in the process of transformation and realization) and not only of meaning. We start from the assumption that his theory assumes an "ontological character": human existence consists in being in the world and it is proper to the human being to act. Action is always circumstantial, requires an "initial impetus" (motive) and is essentially constituted as an ongoing process (path), which differs from the "act" (the result of this path, the action taken). The meanings, produced in the flow of activities, are interpretations of past experiences. This premise raises a challenge for sociology: how to deal with a reality that in itself is temporal, plural, uncertain? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problematizing some of the mains aspects of the sociologies of the individual is the aim of this article with the intention of collaborating for a better understanding of the concepts and methods that have been mobilized for the sociological objectification of individual existence. Three central perspectives of this field are discussed: Bernard Lahire's theory of action, Jean-Claude Kaufmann's theory of habits, and Danilo Martuccelli's theory of individuation. It is considered in that choice the similar type of sociological practice that these authors carry out, which is sustained by a continuous relationship between research and original theorization. The article presents the contributions of the sociologies of the individual to contemporary sociological theory, underlining them as part of a heterogeneous theoretical-methodological field still in development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper proposes a concept of embodied subjectivity in the framework of an existential sociology. Starting from Maurice Merleau-Ponty's existentialist-phenomenological philosophy, I present some questions concerning the subject and the body in the social world. These questions are then discussed with reference to Erving Goffman's sociological theory and the work of Michel Foucault. Through the works of these three authors, a notion of embodied subjectivity is constructed, that is, a concept of subject that takes into consideration the body as a fundamental nexus of social relations. Finally, two directions of a possible existential sociology are explored from the notion of embodied subjectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to examine an aspect often neglected by the studies about political science in Brazil: inequalities among the scientific community. To do this, we start by first locating our contribution within the literature. Then, we analyze the gender, race and geographic profile of the teachers of all postgraduate programs in the area recognized by the Coordination for the improvement of higher education personnel (Capes). The results show that the discipline presents asymmetries of gender and severe racial inequality, which cannot be fully explained by the regional differences of the country. In order to observe the data in a broader perspective, we compare the characteristics of Political Science with those of Sociology and Anthropology and conclude that the former is more unequal in both dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the recent literature in the field of social sciences in which the term "South" is regarded as a theoretical, methodological or epistemological alternative to the colonial effects of our disciplines. Analysing the books of Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Reawyn Connell and Jean and John Comaroff it seeks to point out some of their fragilities and possible alternative paths for a sociology beyond the Euro-American tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between literature and (scientific) knowledge does not seem to be satisfactorily treated neither by the sociology of knowledge nor by the sociology of literature. For the former, the literature can be conceived as a form of knowledge, but has to preserve its "fictional nature" in contrast to scientific knowledge. For the latter, what matters is the social dimension of literature and how it can express in an exaggerated, distorted, controversial manner the reality, without being confounded with it. The argument developed in this article does not expect to establish a similitude between literature and scientific knowledge. It seeks to explore new ways in which literature can be seen as a valid epistemology for understanding social dynamics. This is a job for a social scientist. To shape this reflection, although still in the exploratory stage, I bring together critical references to my two-fold relationship - to the theme of African studies and that of of the sociology of literature - in an attempt to take to a new level the theoritical-epistemological issues relevant to the production of knowledge. The state of the art of this reflection is still without answers, but is producing questions pointing to need for more systematic research and where these specific forms of production can lead us. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interdisciplinarity constitutes sociology as an academic discipline. This characteristic stimulates the discussion about its theoretical and methodological specificities, the formation of a disciplinary culture and the corporatist debate on what would be its peculiarities as a field of knowledge. The synthetic science, as proposed by Comte, since the start encompassed contributions of other human science and also of the hard sciences. In Brazil, sociology was synonymous of social sciences. Anthropology, political science and sociology shared the same field, building up common forums of discussion while, at the same time, strengthened their disciplinary trajectories. Since the 1990s, graduate studies expanded in Brazil; there was also the growth of graduate programs, undergraduate courses and professionals associations in the three areas. There was the growth of graduate education encompassing the contributions of the economy, geography and of other similar disciplines. We argue that, however the interdisciplinarity is the in the future of scientific investigation and can give limits to overspecialization, paradoxically solid disciplines make interdisciplinarity more effective. In this we analyze this process in Brazil, focusing the graduate courses in sociology and social science, using data from Coordination for the Improvement of Personal in Superior Education (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Ensino Superior -- Capes), of the Ministry of Education of Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers an analysis of the research that has been done on the Chilean Pentecostalism in the last two decades. It discusses the impact that research has had both politically and socially, while others are forgotten. It refers to three important moments: the return of democracy and the interest to know the religious-political link, the Census showing the growth of protestantism and the pentecostal centenary aroused renewed interest in new subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the digital age, the social sciences of religion have begun to face the problem of studying a new complex phenomenon: religious communication mediated by the computer. Sociology needs to find instruments, categories and methodologies to analyze it. In this essay we focus on the state of the art of the phenomenon, discussing the terminology, and suggesting a classification methodology and a few reading guidelines. Indeed the cyberspace it is not a matter of bringing order into the "meaningless infinity of the real", but of bearing in mind that the realities are at least two and that, from many points of view, they not always belong to the same "world". The notion of religion offers rigid socio-linguistic evidences to the researcher, perhaps ill-suited to study virtual communities of belief, with ephemeral and changing boundaries, groups of people meeting only in the Net, without any real connection with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the dispute between Karl Mannheim's Sociology of Knowledge and the Critical Theory, and shows how both sociologies, who shared the same space in Frankfurt before 1933, actually share many common points. The author shows how both German sociologies defended similar paths especially in relation to the utopian consciousness before having to leave Germany after the advent of National Socialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is the clarification of some key concepts of the methodology of biographical narratives. Despite of the fact that this methodology is widely used, its theoretical underpinnings not yet appear to have been systematically compiled. Accordingly, the objectives of this paper are as follows: [i] develop the method of narrative interview and the method of analysis of biographical narratives created by Fritz Schütze; [ii] clarify some of the theoretical points that this author assumes (as the task of sociology and its object of study) through the concepts of self, society and language; and [iii] explore the influences of the theoretical framework of the phenomenological sociology of Alfred Schutz and compare both authors. Its conclusion is the statement that the phenomenological sociology cannot be considered the only theoretical framework that underlies Schütze's methodology, which points out to new questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essay reviews how phenomenological psychology can draw on Edmund Husserl's transcendental phenomenology in order to clarify the foundations of the cultural sciences and then explicates the theory of this psychology implicit in Schutz's oeuvre. Max Weber has shown that all phenomena of the socio-cultural world originate in social interaction and can be referred to it. According to him, it is the central task of sociology to understand the meaning which the actor bestows on his action (the "subjective meaning" in his terminology). But what is action, what is meaning, and how is the understanding of such meaning by a fellow-man possible, be he a partner of the social interaction, or merely an observer in everyday life, or a social scientist? I submit that any attempt to answer these questions leads immediately to questions with which Husserl was concerned and which he has to a certain extent solved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author presents Sociology as a critical science of reality, as well as a permanent institutionalized control of social relations with a critical intention and in a scientific manner, combining the theoretical and the practical reason. As a science of reciprocity, Sociology is tasked with questioning ideologized visions of the world (Weltanschauungen) like the absoluticized economic reason in economism. It is a primarily analytical science and, as commonly understood, with responsibilities to society - therefore Sociology combines critique and doubt to design new conceptual possibilities and new options for social action to open new horizons, based on perceptions. But it is also a discipline made by those that have to apply to themselves the same criticism used by analyzing realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]