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Statistics are an essential tool for governance in contemporary public administration. The advent of this discipline in Ecuador hinged on the role played by a field of experts that appeared and achieved legitimacy in the period running between 1927 and 2020. The present text asks about the role of internal and external factors as well as that of sociopolitical causes, in bringing about the development of statistics as a discipline in this country. The examination of historical archives and the completion of in-depth interviews discloses the fact that the advancement of the field of public statistics in Ecuador is the outcome of the joint impact of four centripetal external forces and three centrifugal local factors. The legacy of the Kemmerer mission, the influence of CEPAL, the growing automatization of Government and the international demand for adequate reporting, created powerful incentives for the growth of the profession. These trends were reinforced by local government styles, frequent institutional redesign and recurrent redefinitions of organizational mandates. Initially, academia played an inconsistent and fragmented role in the production of expert statisticians. However, the increasing strength of government regulation and planning helped the profession to achieve institutional and disciplinary stability. This text provides useful insights for efforts that attempt to show that statistics are not objective and isolated devices, but instead are the result of social relations that need to be approached from a historical perspective.

Drawing on the empirical contributions of the FQS thematic issues on "The Refiguration of Spaces and Cross-Cultural Comparison," we specify what is meant by "refiguration of space" and how comparisons can serve to study the refiguration of space. We address the question of how current social change can be understood and explained in spatial terms. Moreover, these spatial dynamics are driven by tensions and conflict between different Raumfiguren [spatial figures] that result in refiguration. By capturing the conflictual nature of the social change in space, "refiguration" complements the rather linear idea of "globalization." The necessity to empirically substantiate its constitutive sub-processes of mediatization, translocalization, and polycontexturalization raises the question of how refiguration can be studied on a global scale particularly on the basis of case studies and systematic comparisons. With reference to the articles in this thematic issue, we suggest to focus on "knowledge" instead of "culture" as a major reference for comparison. We introduce the notion of "multiple spatialities" by which such a comparison can be achieved, which accounts for the plurality of perspectives of observers comparing spatial phenomena and for the multiplicity of spatial arrangements within the varieties of refiguration to be found on the global scale.

Despite their differences, sociologists of architecture agree on one fundamental premise: buildings—and architecture more broadly—play a role in shaping social life. The importance of the "agency" of architecture has been equally highlighted in debates in cultural theory. The authors of the publications under discussion here approached this issue through empirical research. We suggest that, in doing so, they make visible the methodological challenges and potentials that confront sociologists of architecture. We aim to offer a comparative overview of some of the newer publications in the German-speaking sociology of architecture which adapt established methods of qualitative sociology to the field of architecture. We review these works through the lens of how well they empirically address the issue of the ways in which architecture can be shown to have agency in society.

Photography can be used for a wide variety of social functions. The hermeneutic method of image cluster analysis presented deals with a comparatively new social use and understanding of photography: as digital montage forming intricate compilations. At the methodological heart of this approach is the 1. figurative analysis of the compositional principles of particular image compilations, i.e., their expressive meaning. This ideographic perspective is expanded and supplemented by 2. investigating the structure of the mediated field of perception and action of each image cluster, as well as the styles of observing and knowing that they predicate. Methodologically speaking, the approach relies on an assumption that far from being an invention of technological media, the "game" (WITTGENSTEIN) which is constitutive of iconic image clusters, complete with relationships of similarity and difference, has its anthropological basis and primary social expression in people's body language and in minor social distinctions. According to this hypothesis, in recent image clusters photography is no longer necessarily understood as depicting or documenting occurrences in the lifeworld, but is instead consolidated as a collectively shared means of expression which can be repeatedly recombined to form new figures of expression—in other words, it achieves a decidedly idiomatic quality.

"Photography and Society," edited by Thomas S. EBERLE contributes to the burgeoning debates about visuality and visual perception. The 25 chapters of the volume draw on Alfred SCHÜTZ's phenomenology to consider photography as a social phenomenon. They are concerned with the practice of taking and producing photographs as well as with the viewing and interpretation of photographs. Thus they deal with production and reception aesthetics. The analyses are also used to reflect on the status of photographs and their relationship to the Wirkwelt [world of working]. The book is notable for encompassing a wide range of theoretical and empirical analyses and including a large number of high-quality photographs. The inclusion of these photographs does not serve illustrative purposes but is critical to the analyses presented in the volume. I recommend "Photography and Society" to sociologists with an interest in debates about visuality and the analysis of visual perception. Some knowledge of the sociology of knowledge helps with the reading of the book. But the book can also be used to learn about the opportunities offered by the sociology of knowledge.

This article discusses journalism from an epistemological perspective. It reviews some of the main approaches to the subject and verifies that those studies classify journalism as a form of knowledge either in a negative way, or in quantitative terms. The present study presents theoretical assumptions that support a qualitative approach. It evaluates the characteristics, problems and effects of journalism as knowledge. It concludes that it is highly pertinent that journalism be viewed as a social form of knowledge production.

This paper proposes a psychoanalytical interpretation of Karl Mannheim’s main work, Ideology and Utopia. Our hypothesis is that a kind of “socio-pathology” that is implicit in Mannheim’s sociology of knowledge can be put explicit by the interpretation of his conception of false consciousness as a synthesis of the eponym concept of Georg Lukács and of the Freudian notion of illusion. We than show that the often pointed aporetic character of Mannheim’s sociology of knowledge can be outrun if its key element, the freely attached intellectual, is conceived of by analogy with the position of the Ego in Freud’s second topic, defined by its specific relation to the Id, the Superego (considered respectively as the analogues of utopian desire and ideology) and “reality”.

This paper aims to show the artistic and philosophical dialogue developed over the first half of the 20th Century between the Hungarian thinker Georg Lukács and the German writer Thomas Mann. From an approach inspired by the sociology of knowledge from Mannheim and the historical emphasis on the individuality from Burckhardt, I will work in three dimensions: first, the paths of both intellectual and moments where they intersect, and secondly, the inspiration that messianism Lukács gave for the construction of the controversial character Leo Naphta's novel “The Magic Mountain”, Mann; thirdly, about how the fictional work this was interpreted by the Hungarian literary criticism.

The objective of this paper is to analyze the determinants of Mannheim's thought, especially those taken from the theory of Marx and converge to the exposure of ideology. The concept of ideology is reviewed by Mannheim as follows in his major works, which will enable the development of Sociology of Knowledge in a debate with modern thought that had been built from the paradigm of consciousness. The Sociology of Knowledge presents in his early epistemological one configuration, providing a new way of understanding social phenomena and, after that, contributes to the political field, holding the path of social planning. Here emerges the guidance of social processes, highlighting the scientific rationality of Sociology of Knowledge as a producer of social techniques.

Pesquisas recentes da história das ciências e da sociologia do conhecimento, que entendem a ciência como conhecimento em circulação, apontam a importância do estudo das traduções de obras científicas, que envolvem tanto as circunstâncias sociais de produção quanto as de recepção dessas obras. O depoimento que apresentamos é dos autores da tradução feita diretamente do alemão para o português de Gênese e desenvolvimento de um fato científico, de Ludwik Fleck, citada por Thomas Kuhn no prefácio de A estrutura das revoluções científicas. Com ele, pretende-se oferecer subsídios para a compreensão da importância de Fleck nos estudos sobre a circulação do conhecimento científico desenvolvidos no Brasil.Recent research in the history of science and the sociology of knowledge, where science is understood as knowledge in circulation, has called attention to the importance of studying the translation of scientific works, which involves not only the social circumstances of their production but also how these works are received. The testimony presented here was given by the translators of the Portuguese version of Ludwik Fleck's Entstehung und Entwicklung einer wissenschaftlichen Tatsache (Genesis and development of a scientific fact), a work that probably influenced Thomas Kuhn's now classic The structure of scientific revolutions. Our goal is to offer resources for understanding Fleck's importance in Brazilian studies on the circulation of scientific knowledge.

O artigo examina, em dois momentos distintos, as principais abordagens sociológicas sobre a ciência no século vinte: a Sociologia do Conhecimento, a Sociologia da Ciência e a Sociologia do Conhecimento Científico. No primeiro tópico são recapitulados os argumentos sociológicos de Karl Mannheim e de Robert King Merton. Defende-se a interpretação de que a obra de Mannheim seja reconhecida enquanto pressuposto epistemológico para o desenvolvimento da Sociologia da Ciência de Merton. Adaptada por Merton, a metateoria sociológica de Mannheim surge através de uma abordagem estrutural funcionalista associada a uma teoria de médio alcance. No segundo momento, são retomados os argumentos de Thomas Kuhn para, logo após, ser analisada a Sociologia do Conhecimento Científico enquanto apreciação construtiva da tradição de pensamento mertoniana. O estudo dos princípios lógicos da Sociologia do Conhecimento Científico de David Bloor e a investigação acerca da tradição de pensamento iniciada na Universidade de Edimburgo, na Escócia, foram o foco elementar dessa etapa do artigo. Finalmente, as principais características de cada uma das tradições são ressaltadas, buscando-se por mudanças e continuidades que viabilizaram o desenvolvimento da abordagem sociológica sobre a atividade científica desde sua gênese clássica até os estudos contemporâneos.The article examines, in two different moments, the major sociological approaches to science in the twentieth century: the Sociology of Knowledge, the Sociology of Science and the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge. In the first topic, Karl Mannheim's and Robert King Merton's sociological arguments are summarized. We support that the interpretation of Mannheim's work must be recognized as an epistemological prerequisite to the development of Merton's Sociology of Science. Adapted by Merton, Mannheim's sociological metatheory appears in Merton through a functional structuralism approach, associated with a middle range theory. In the second moment, we summarize Thomas Kuhn's arguments for, subsequently, examining the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge as a constructive appreciation to mertonian tradition of thought. The study of the logic principles of David Bloor's Sociology of Scientific Knowledge as well as the investigation of the tradition of thought started in University of Edinburgh, Scotland, was the elementary focus of this topic. Finally, the major characteristics of each tradition are elucidated, searching for changes and continuities that enable the development of the sociological approach on scientific activity since its classical genesis until the contemporary studies.

O artigo analisa a crítica da epistemologia normativa na obra de Karl Mannheim, sublinhando a sua presença tanto na fase mais filosófica, associada ao elogio do historicismo, como na Sociologia do Conhecimento posterior. Chama a atenção também para a atualidade dessa crítica: ao censurar os epistemólogos do seu tempo por não levarem na devida conta os achados das ciências empíricas particulares, Mannheim antecipa, em décadas, tendências mais recentes da Sociologia do Conhecimento e da reflexão epistemológica.The article analyzes the critique of normative epistemology in the work of Karl Mannheim, stressing its presence both in his more philosophical phase, associated with the praise of historicism, and in his later Sociology of Knowledge. It also calls attention to the relevance of this critique: attacking the epistemologists of his time by not taking into proper account the findings of particular empirical sciences, Mannheim anticipated by decades recent trends in the Sociology of Knowledge and epistemological reflection.

O conceito de gerações vem sendo retomado nas análises sociológicas que apontam não somente para as diferenças de classe, mas também para as desigualdades de gênero, étnico-raciais, culturais e geracionais. No entanto, "gerações" aparece como uma espécie de conceito guarda-chuva ou como categoria pouco teorizada. Embora o conceito de gerações de Mannheim represente, para muitos autores, a mais completa tentativa de explicação do tema, o mesmo tem sido, muitas vezes, citado por se tratar de um "clássico": as potencialidades de análise do conceito proposto pelo autor ainda são muitas. O presente artigo apresenta, por um lado, uma reconstrução deste "famoso" ensaio que até hoje não chegou a ser integralmente traduzido e publicado no Brasil e, por outro, discute a atualidade e pertinência do artigo escrito por Mannheim em 1928 para os estudos contemporâneos sobre gerações e suas interfaces com outros campos.The concept of generations has been incorporated into sociological analysis, which points class differences but also gender, ethnic, racial, cultural and generational inequalities. However "generations" seems to be a kind of umbrella concept or category that have been little theorized. Though the concept of generations of Mannheim represent, for many authors, the most comprehensive attempt to explain the issue, it has been frequently quoted since it is a "classic". The possibilities of analysis of the concept proposed by the author still are many. This article presents, first, a reconstruction of this 'famous' essay which has not yet come to be fully translated and published in Brazil, and secondly, discusses the relevance and appropriateness of the article written by Mannheim in 1928 for the contemporary studies of generation and their interfaces with other fields.

The aim of this article is to provide a detailed approach to institutional actors, expert opinions and paternity cases within the Portuguese legal system by analysing the way in which evidence is produced and analysed – including scientific, witness and documentary evidence – in procedures involving the official establishment of paternity (AOP) and inquiries into paternity (AIP). It also addresses the ways in which different institutional actors intervene, and how public information deemed reliable and robust is produced as part of these procedures.It attempts to show how the discrepancies between the legal and scientific edifices within the framework of procedures for the official establishment of paternity may lead to a redefinition of the law and to broader reflections on the way in which evidence is incorporated into legal rulings.

OBJETIVO: La capacidad de los gestores de servicios de salud para utilizar la investigación en salud es una habilidad fundamental para su desempeño. Se describe y analiza dicha habilidad en relación con cuatro componentes: adquisición del conocimiento, análisis de su calidad y pertinencia, adaptación a las necesidades del proceso de gestión y aplicación en el contexto de la planeación estratégica y la toma de decisiones. Se describen y analizan asimismo las propuestas para fortalecer la capacidad. MATERIAL Y MÉTODOS: Se aplicaron una herramienta de autodiagnóstico y una guía de discusión, sometidas para su autorización a la Comisión de Ética del Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública antes de su aplicación. El trabajo se llevó a cabo durante los meses de abril a noviembre del año 2007 en 122 equipos de gestión en unidades locales de servicio y programación (84.4% de tasa de respuesta) de instituciones públicas y privadas no lucrativas, en seis entidades contrastantes y representativas de México. RESULTADOS: Se observó un gradiente en la capacidad de utilización entre las entidades. La adquisición del conocimiento es inversamente proporcional al índice de desarrollo humano (IDH). No se detectaron diferencias significativas entre instituciones públicas ni entre el sector público y el privado. La principal necesidad detectada de fortalecimiento radica en la adquisición de investigación. La principal prioridad percibida consiste en incrementar la calificación del personal en investigación en salud. Las entidades con menor IDH tienen necesidades más inmediatas de fortalecimiento. Las medidas de fortalecimiento propuestas a través de los estados varían de acuerdo con su IDH y la sensibilización sobre las bondades de la investigación entre tomadores de decisión es la de mayor mención en las entidades con menor IDH. CONCLUSIONES: Debe impulsarse el autodiagnóstico de la capacidad en las unidades de servicio y programas institucionales. Es importante diferenciar las estrategias de fortalecimiento y atender la diversidad estatal. La capacitación en investigación operativa y la disponibilidad de recursos para financiarla deben considerarse de manera prioritaria.OBJECTIVE: The perceived capacity of health management teams to utilize research for decision making is assessed, as well as proposals for strengthening such capacity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 103 management teams (84.4% response rate) from a wide range of institutions in six contrasting and representative states in Mexico were asked to assess their perceived capacity for utilizing research and to propose strategies to strengthen that capacity. Qualitative and statistical techniques were used from April to November 2007, after approval by the Mexico National Institute of Public Health (INSP) Ethics Commission. RESULTS: Significant differences across states were found. Only the acquisition of knowledge is significantly correlated with the human development index. The acquisition of research is identified as the priority for strengthening capacity, through increasing the qualifications of personnel in public health research. States with a lower human development index have more immediate needs for strengthening capacity. Proposals for strengthening capacity also depend on whether decision makers are aware of the importance of research. CONCLUSIONS: The use of self-assessment should be encouraged at the state and institutional levels. Different strategies should be used to address differences among states.

Os cernes dos problemas das teorias sociológicas e filosóficas do conhecimento permanecem insolúveis e inconciliáveis, na medida em que ambas partem de modelos estáticos. Esses problemas poderão ser solucionados - e as respectivas teorias correlacionar-se entre si - sem muitas dificuldades, se a aquisição de conhecimento que ocorre no interior das sociedades for conceituada como um processo de longo prazo que, por sua vez, acontece dentro de sociedades também consideradas como um processo de longo prazo. Essa abordagem tem a vantagem adicional de estar em estreito acordo com as evidências. O artigo indica o que precisa ser desaprendido e o que precisa ser aprendido a fim de se preparar o caminho para que tal arcabouço teórico unificado possa servir como guia para os estudos empíricos de sociologia de todos os tipos de conhecimento - científico e prático, bem como não científico ou ideológico -, podendo tal delineamento também ser corrigido por esses estudos.The core problems of sociological and philosophical theories of knowledge remain insoluble and unrelated since both theories start from static models. The problems can be solved - and the respective theories can be related to each other - without undue difficulties if the acquisition of knowledge occurring within societies is conceptualized as a long-term process which, in turn, takes place within societies also considered as long-term processes. This approach adds up to being in close agreement with the evidence. The paper points out what needs to be both unlearned and learned in order to pave the way for such a unified theoretical framework to serve as a guide to - and be corrected by - empirical sociological studies of all kinds of knowledge: scientific and practical, as well as non-scientific or ideological.

In this article we realize a critical approach to the good savage myth as a cognitive distortion, paradigmatically represented by a Neil Young´s musical composition on Hernan Cortez figure. We use as a tool to do that criticism some relevant contributions from philosophy, social psychology and sociology of knowledge, specially that one elaborated by P.L. Berger. It’s shown myth inconsistence and their ideological supports and utilities and we conclude that one of the main functions of sociology is to unmask both descriptions and explanations of social world.

In the article, I explore researchers' subjectivity and it's marginalization in the social sciences, especially in sociology. Based on a review of the research in which researchers' subjectivity plays a role, I will briefly give an overview of their different theming in individual social science disciplines, and then discuss, from the perspective of the sociology of knowledge, the question of why in particular sociology makes researchers' subjectivity a taboo subject. At this point I will introduce three hypotheses that help to understand this behavior. Therefore, it is not about the question of whether researchers' subjectivity plays a role in research (which is generally agreed), but the question is why a particular discipline remains intensely silent. Thus, the subject is to communicate about researchers' subjectivity, not the researchers' subjectivity itself. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1503339

In contrast to quantitative approaches, where interaction effects are usually regarded as errors or disruption, we understand interviews as social situations and the interaction dynamics between interviewee and interviewer as constitutive for data collection and interpretation. We conducted interviews with various actors from the academic field for a research project in higher education research. Based on our field experience we assume that interviews also offer opportunities for the respondents to present themselves in a discursive process. In this article we first show that many of our interviewees perceived us as evaluators. We argue that the interviewees' self-presentations and rhetorical strategies were shaped by the evaluative and competitive environment in which they took place, i.e. that of the entrepreneurial university. Furthermore we sum up various types of interactive effects which can occur when researchers interview actors with a higher status in the academic field. These research up-effects as well as the interviewees' perception of us as evaluators influenced both how and what they told us as well as what they kept silent. Therefore we plead that researchers should look out more carefully for interaction dynamics when interpreting data, as they also might be pointers to tensions, conflicts or opposing perspectives. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1501111

Este artigo discute a questão do caráter da teoria de Bernstein. Ele baseia-se em um conjunto de conceitos-chave elaborados em alguns de seus artigos mais recentes, embora sugira ser possível discernir as origens dessas idéias em trabalhos muito mais antigos. Na primeira seção discute-se o diagnóstico de Bernstein, que compreende a sociologia da educação como uma estrutura do conhecimento horizontal com uma gramática fraca. Destaca-se um aparente paradoxo: se a sociologia da educação tem essa forma, como podemos explicar a própria teoria de Bernstein? O resto do texto emprega os próprios trabalhos de Bernstein como uma maneira de explorar as condições para o crescimento do conhecimento em sociologia como uma estrutura do conhecimento vertical com uma gramática forte.This paper raises the question of the character of Bernstein's theory. It draws upon a set of key concepts elaborated in some of his later papers, though we suggest that it is possible to discern the origins of these ideas in much earlier work. In the first section Bernstein's diagnosis of the sociology of education as a horizontal knowledge structure with a weak grammar is discussed and an apparent paradox identified: if the sociology of education has this form, how can we account for Bernstein's own theory? The remainder of the paper uses the case of Bernstein's own work as a way of exploring the conditions for knowledge growth in sociology as a vertical knowledge structure with a strong grammar.

At this year's spring conference of the Sociology of Knowledge Section of the German Sociological Association, a diverse range of theoretical concepts and multiple empirical insights into different marginal social fields were presented. As in everyday life, drawing a line between center and margin can be seen as an important challenge that must equally be faced in sociology. The socially constructed borderline appears to be highly variable. Therefore it has to be delineated or fixed somehow. The construction of margins is necessary for society in general and smaller social groupings alike to confirm one's own "normal" identity, or one's own membership on the fringes. The different contributions exemplify what was established at the beginning of the conference: Namely that society and its margins are defined differently according to the empirical as well as conceptual focus. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1402148

Over recent years, the new sociology of knowledge has become increasingly interested in issues and debates about the ways in which the body features in people's actions and experience of the social world—debates that over the past two decades have also arisen within the sociology of the body. The edited collection reviewed here is based on the contributions to a conference jointly organised in 2010 by two sections of the German Sociology Association's (DGS): the section "Sociology of Knowledge" and the section "Sociology of the Body and Sociology of Sport." The book contains a variety of theoretical and empirical papers that analyse how "knowledge of the body" features in people's actions and everyday experiences, as well as how it is communicated. To guide the debate, the editors use their introductory chapter to differentiate between "knowledge of the body" and "knowledge about the body." This distinction proves very useful in drawing relationships between the individual contributions, which are based on studies from very diverse domains, including the discourse on sexuality, cosmetic surgery and General Practice, as well as exhibitions about the body, pedagogical concepts of the body and the body in martial arts training. It also supports linkages between the theoretical papers in the first part of the volume and the empirical analyses of the later contributions. This edited volume will be of interest to anyone with a background in the sociology of knowledge and the sociology of the body conducting research and contributing to sociological debates on the relationship between the body and knowledge. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs120216

The 3. Fulda Convention on Fieldwork—essentially based around the concept of lifeworld analytical ethnography developed by Anne HONER—provided a broad insight into recent avenues and challenges in ethnographic research. The reporting team consisted of three participants, making it possible to track the various lines of research enquiry throughout the conference. As a key result we are able to posit the existence of two quite distinct epistemologies of lifeworld within interpretative social research . Explicitly as well as implicitly, there seem to be two fundamental understandings of "world": 1. in the sense of a subjective constitution (inner world), and 2. in the sense of an inter-subjective social construct (outer world). It becomes apparent that each of these understandings entails particular methodical and methodological consequences for the whole research process. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1201133

The book "Visual Sociology of Knowledge: Theoretical Concepts and Analyses" attempts to provide a theoretical foundation for the hermeneutics of images as an interpretative method for audio-visual material, in the tradition of the sociology of knowledge. Jürgen RAAB focuses on his concept of Sehgemeinschaften [communities of seeing], which describes groups who differ in their editing techniques. Drawing on examples of three different visual subcultures, he shows how their different approaches to reality are mirrored in their editing approaches and thus their video products. He comes to the conclusion that seeing and the medialization of seeing are not objective constants, but are historically changeable and socio-structurally formed. At the same time, in some of its chapters (1-3) the book provides an introduction to visual sociology in general. From the visual culture of modernity to the Visual Turn in sociology, scientists specializing in Visual Studies and interested students will find an informative overview. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs110167

In this paper I discuss the theoretical basis of a sociology of knowledge approach to discourse (Wissenssoziologische Diskursanalyse, WDA), and its methodological implications and transpositions. WDA's emphasis is on the analysis of societal knowledge conditions and politics of knowledge. This specific "translation" between sociology of knowledge and the Foucauldian (type of) discourse analysis in recent times gains in influence not only in sociology but in history, pedagogics/educational science, linguistics, political science, studies of religion, as well as criminology. WDA translates FOUCAULT's concepts and theoretical considerations into a social constructivist frame of reference provided by BERGER and LUCKMANN's sociology of knowledge, thereby linking it to the methodological pool provided by the interpretative paradigm. Unlike most linguistic approaches to discourse, the analysis of knowledge FOUCAULT aimed at comes to the fore, thereby pulling "discursive struggles" into the focus of social scientific discourse analysis. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs100352

A conjoint congress of two sections of the German Sociological Association (Sociology of Knowledge and Sociology of the Body and Sports) met to explore the various dimensions of body knowledge: explicit and implicit, reflexive and incorporated, expert knowledge and knowledge of laypersons. Relating to different social fields (school, medicine, sports, work, and sexuality), it was explained and discussed how different dimensions of body knowledge are interrelated. An additional focus was on the scope and problems of theorizing the relation of body knowledge and body praxis and on methodological questions concerning how to get access to pre-reflexive body practices. The discussions revealed that research in the sociology of knowledge expanded significantly during the last ten years, and that improving its theorizing and methodologies are central concerns for the future. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1002277

The book "From Discourse to Dispositif" aims to fill a gap in the current upsurge of discourse research. Motivated by dissatisfaction with an exclusive focus on discourses in the social sciences, BÜHRMANN and SCHNEIDER do not fall back on the existing alternatives to discourse analysis but rather use it as their starting point to extend the perspective, by way of power analysis, to include non-discursive practices, both symbolic and material objectivations, and subjectivation/subjectification in socio-theoretical, historical framing. One of their goals is to expand, with sociological approaches (especially in the sociology of knowledge), on the basis laid by FOUCAULT. Their conception of dispositif research—even if this work is only supposed to be a concise introduction to it—suits the undertaking in a comprehensive way, in that the authors not only elaborate its theoretical and epistemological premises but also present the corresponding methodological considerations and the methodical implementation in praxis. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs100298

The change of paradigm from text to visuality is not merely a metaphor that is sent to the catwalk, it is an up-to-date theoretical and methodological perspective that is well-established. BOHNSACK's book on picture and video analyses is a fundamental contribution to the literature on the collection of visual data in relation to the documentary method. In this review essay the book will be briefly outlined and later placed within the current methodological discussion. Its main assumptions are examined and its importance for research within the humanities is assessed. Controlled empirical access to visual data implicates an important methodological perspective that enables scientists to trace the incorporation of atheoretical knowledge. A praxeologically sound sociology of knowledge can be approached on the basis of documentary picture analysis. However, there needs to be greater openness to the diversity of videographic methods in the context of a humanities-based hermeneutics, here more favorable than academic rituals of demarcation. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1001111

Antagonism between members of a host society and immigrants is characterized by a powerful tendency to focus on what is regarded as socially or culturally divisive. However, an orientation that centers on differences makes attempts at understanding social or cultural differences rather challenging them. Using the example of a conflict between Free Church repatriates of German origin and a local population, this study examines how such a group-related, difference-based orientation affects the interpretation of activities and positions of the others. The conflict taking place between the two groups was primarily caused by the obligation to participate in class trips; however, there were also more fundamental differences. The evidence of this conflict is documented in letters to the editors of newspapers. Due to the sequential order of some parts of these letters, it is possible to ask how the system of values and norms of the others was interpreted. This study illustrates how the value system of a host society is used to elaborate positions concerning pedagogical, religious, and integration-related questions. The study asks to what extent orientations that are focused on cultural differences and antagonistic positions affect the processes of understanding the stranger of the other culture. Three interpretive approaches are differentiated. They are characterized by the variety of ways individuals attempt to understand cultural differences. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0903181

The book "Powerpoint-Präsentationen. Neue Formen der gesellschaftlichen Kommunikation von Wissen" (Powerpoint Presentations: New Forms of Social Communication of Knowledge), edited by SCHNETTLER und KNOBLAUCH, is devoted to a previously underresearched subject: the features and effects of presentations supported by software, and in particular by Microsoft's "PowerPoint," The authors explain that, from sociological and linguistic viewpoints, presentations have a greater impact on content than the bare texts and pictures on the slides. The slides shown during a presentation gain in meaning when supported by a presenter who not only speaks but uses body language and various presentation techniques. Difficulties in communication can arise when organizations replace traditional reports with powerpoint slides. The book is considered in the context of current research and opinions on powerpoint. A critical look is taken at the claim that powerpoint per se is responsible for disasters such as the crash of the Columbia space shuttle. The decisive factor seems to be more a question of how competent users are in using presentation software and the associated communication techniques. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0902135

Intercultural communication is a form of interaction that is highly susceptible to errors. Hence, for a long time it has been studied primarily with regard to the kinds of misunderstandings that it typically produces. However, under pressure from increasing globalization, which also encompasses communication processes, questions concerning the limitations and possibilities for intercultural understanding are gaining the attention of scholars. This contribution addresses first the fundamental possibility of intercultural communication, and on this basis derives conclusions concerning how processes of intercultural understanding can be reconstructed. Finally, the attainable results and methods of a methodologically controlled reconstruction of these processes are described from the perspective of hermeneutic sociology of knowledge. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0901408

This transdisciplinary anthology was published on the occasion of the 65th birthday of Emil WALTER-BUSCH, an organization scientist from St. Gallen, Switzerland. Alongside discussions of current theories about the character of organizations, the collection introduces and evaluates international management research as well as approaches to organizational change. All the articles are embedded in a reflexive approach to the production of social-scientific knowledge. This anthology, as interesting for organization researchers as for sociologists of knowledge and science, is particularly successful in not only taking up and developing the thoughts of Emil WALTER-BUSCH but also in capturing the spirit of his scientific work. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0901219

The 14 articles in this collection present theories, questions and research areas in German sociology of knowledge. The contributions analyze the construction of reality with regard to knowledge. As a science of "the real," sociology of knowledge gains access to other disciplines such as ethnology, systems theory, communication studies or cognitive science. The collection emphasizes a critical approach to the possibilities and capacities of sociology of knowledge as such. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0901278

"Old Dresden" which is known worldwide as a symbol for inept destruction in World War II stopped existing in its physical form in February 1945. The image of "old Dresden," however, has been maintained in the minds of its citizens. This is as results of the visualization of historical buildings. Buildings are artifacts that can be experienced visually and aesthetically. Thus, it is not surprising that in the context of public discourses they "demand" an appropriate representation in a visual and in an aesthetic respect. In the urban discourse of Dresden the visualization of buildings plays an important role. In the article the author exemplifies her methodical approach to visual discourse analysis. She acts on the assumption that three levels of analyzing images must be taken into consideration: 1. the composition of the image, with its content and design, 2. the context of production and publication, including the horizon of historic events, and 3. the mode of reception, with respect to communicative processes. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0803115

The considerable progress in qualitative methods is directly connected with developments in the field of text-interpretation. On the basis of a thorough reconstruction of their formal structures texts are treated as autonomous domains of self-referential systems. Such a methodological status has been denied to pictures in empirical research in the field of social sciences up until now. The documentary method, based on Karl MANNHEIM's Sociology of Knowledge, opens up methodical access to pictures. Methodologies from art history (PANOFSKY, IMDAHL) can thus become relevant for empirical research in social sciences. Connections to semiotics (BARTHES, ECO) and philosophy (FOUCAULT) are worked out in their consequences for qualitative methods. Thus verbal contextual and pre-knowledge can be controlled methodically in the documentary interpretation of pictures. The reconstruction of formal structure of pictures becomes of central importance in analysis. All of this will be demonstrated by examples from research practice. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0803267

Actual efforts to use Michel FOUCAULT's ideas about discourse for empirical research induce a linguistic bias which misses FOUCAULT's interests in power/knowledge. Against such tendencies, this article argues for a grounding of discourse theory and empirical discourse research in the sociology of knowledge, especially in the German-based Hermeneutische Wissenssoziologie, which follows the BERGER/LUCKMANN approach to knowledge. For the purposes of empirical discourse research on knowledge, the author first considers the interpretative dimension of research. Then, some conceptual tools for knowledge analysis are presented (interpretative scheme, classification, phenomenal structure, narrative structure). Third, drawing on grounded theory and sequential analysis, concrete work on texts is discussed. Finally, the article insists that discourse research should not be reduced to the analysis of spoken or written texts. Instead, different kinds of materiality—for example as dispositifs—have to be considered. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0702198

How can one apply discourse analysis to everyday knowledge? The empirical analysis of a particular discursive Internet-based event, the Internet forum "1000 Questions about Bioethics", offers a good starting point for methodological considerations of the relationship between everyday life and discourse. This article discusses three main points. First, it differentiates between three types of discourse, namely special discourse, interdiscourse and elementary discourse. Second, it offers a contribution to the conceptualization of everyday discourse. In this respect, BERGER and LUCKMANN's sociology of knowledge proves helpful; their approach is subjected to a reading that uses a structural theoretical view drawing on FOUCAULT. The structured character as well as the originality of "what people are saying" are explored; the significance of establishing legitimacy and subjectivation for everyday knowledge is also pointed out. Finally, the article presents the authors' empirical findings on the relations between special knowledge and everyday knowledge. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0702156

The following report summarizes the discussions and a number of the central substantive points put forward by the participants of the Franco-German workshop—held in Paris during the summer of 2005—on recent developments and future perspectives of discourse related research in France and Germany. Discourse analysis in France can be traced back to structuralist theorizing as it has developed inside linguistics since SAUSSURE and further elaborated by theorists such as FOUCAULT, DERRIDA, ALTHUSSER and LACAN. Currently, the field is characterized by well established linguistic research networks and methodologies. Discourse analysis in Germany, in contrast, gained academic status only in the 1990s, and this was the case mainly in social science disciplines. Against this background, the workshop not only shed light on the respective underlying assumptions of German qualitative social science and the "French School" of discourse analysis, it also theoretically located and methodologically systematized the existed "pool of tools." The workshop thereby helped to clarify the contours of the field of discourse analysis from the perspectives of the respective target groups on both sides of the Rhine. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0701222

The contribution outlines a research pro­gramme which I have coined the "sociology of knowledge approach to discourse" (Wissens­sozio­logische Diskursanalyse). This approach to dis­course integrates important insights of FOU­CAULT's theory of discourse into the interpretative paradigm in the social sciences, especially the "German" approach of hermeneutic sociology of knowledge (Hermeneutische Wissenssoziologie). Accordingly, in this approach discourses are con­sidered as "structured and structuring structures" which shape social practices of enunciation. Un­like some Foucauldian approaches, this form of discourse analysis recognises the importance of socially constituted actors in the social production and circulation of knowledge. Furthermore, it com­bines research questions related to the concept of "discourse" with the methodical toolbox of qual­itative social research. Going beyond ques­tions of language in use, "the sociology of knowl­edge ap­proach to discourse" (Wissenssozio­logi­sche Dis­kurs­analyse) addresses sociological inter­ests, the analyses of social relations and politics of knowl­edge as well as the discursive construction of re­al­ity as an empirical ("material") process. For empiri­cal research on discourse the approach proposes the use of analytical concepts from the sociology of knowledge tradition, such as inter­pretative schemes or frames (Deutungsmuster), "clas­sifi­ca­tions", "phenomenal structure" (Phäno­men­struktur), "narrative structure", "dispositif" etc., and the use of the methodological strategies of "grounded theory". URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0503327