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In recent years concepts drawn from linguistics have been used increasingly in social and political theory. Such concepts as deep structure, surface structure, transformation rules, etc., are borrowed from Chomsky's theory of transformational-generative grammar. This paper examines two instances of this "linguistic drift" in action theory—the work of Marshall Edelson on personality and Terrence Turner on kinship and socialization. Analysis shows that in these instances the analogies with the linguistic concepts are not very rigorous. The author makes some tentative statements about the current status and prospects of such research programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors argue that temporality is a significant dimension of social activity. The paper reviews the phenomenological experience of temporality, ways of conceptualizing time, and ways in which temporality may shape interpretation, and illustrates these themes through an empirical study in which approximately 80 subjects read and responded to one of two short stories. Themes of temporality were explored in the interview transcripts through references to temporal themes, temporality as an influence on causal and trait attributions, temporal chains, and other forms of interpretive cycles, as well as ways in which temporality is involved in the definition of other and "possible others." On the basis of these patterns, we conclude that time is a crucial factor in shaping interpretations of social life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beginnings are both theoretically and experientially anchored in a distinctively discontinuous conception of time. This paper examines the conventional nature of beginnings, calls attention to the politics of establishing official beginnings of historical narratives, and claims that the way groups (from families to nations) construct their historical beginnings ought to be at the heart of any study of the development of collective identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of cognitive mapping as drawn from sociological phenomenology is used to clarify the complexity of the concept of community. Fifty residents of a Midwestern rural area were asked to drawn maps of their community. The maps reveal individual differences in the perception of a community and a tendency for the perception of community to vary by gender. Where the activities within a community tend to he segregated, there will also tend to be different viewpoints or cognitive map of the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Weber's interpretive sociology requires the understanding of motives, affectual states, and actions. These are understandable because they themselves represent or embody interpretations. The Weberian statements are shown to be compatible with a conception of the human individual as a being who interprets subjective experiences in terms of cultural categories and guides his conduct by such interpretations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formation of the concept ‘sense making practices’ in ethnomethodology receives attention. The referents and uses of the concept suggest that ‘sense making practices’ form a family rather than a class. Family membership is a matter of family resemblance. Thus claims about new family members run a risk of intelligibility. Finally, the search for universally invariant properties is fundamentally misguided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author establishes several criteria which in our culture are used by an individual to determine whether another person loves him/her. Three conditions necessary for the perception of love are elaborated and shown to entail several logical and psychological inconsistencies. It is suggested that our society, while emphasizing the importance of being loved, defines love so as to mitigate against it being perceived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay attempts to identify some underlying commitments of ethnomethodology. The commitments explored are the idea of reflexivity, science, normal practice and the radical empirical stance—all of which are essential to ethnomethodology. Finally, it is argued that as an upshot of these commitments, ethnomethodology harbors a political implication which allows for its use as an instrument for de-objectification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]