Alex Dennis – författare

Magic, Science and Society investigates the way the ‘rationality debate’ has developed over the last century, from E.E. Evans-Pritchard’s study of Azande magic, through Peter Winch’s argument that there can be no such thing as a social science, across the arguments about the proper status of science in the 1970s and 1980s, to the ‘epistemological’ and ‘ontological’ turns of the early twenty-first century.

Different people have different understandings of what is rational: some practise magic, some orientate to legal convention and tradition and others defer to science and logic. Starting with anthropological studies of witchcraft, and working through to contemporary debates about epistemology and ontology in social science, this book systematically examines the ways key questions about these issues have been framed and answered. These include:

This book will be of interest to anthropologists, sociologists, philosophers of the social sciences and science studies practitioners.

Magic, Science and Society investigates the way the ‘rationality debate’ has developed over the last century, from E.E. Evans-Pritchard’s study of Azande magic, through Peter Winch’s argument that there can be no such thing as a social science, across the arguments about the proper status of science in the 1970s and 1980s, to the ‘epistemological’ and ‘ontological’ turns of the early twenty-first century.

Different people have different understandings of what is rational: some practise magic, some orientate to legal convention and tradition and others defer to science and logic. Starting with anthropological studies of witchcraft, and working through to contemporary debates about epistemology and ontology in social science, this book systematically examines the ways key questions about these issues have been framed and answered. These include:

This book will be of interest to anthropologists, sociologists, philosophers of the social sciences and science studies practitioners.

This volume offers a comprehensive overview of the most pressing issues and developments in the field of ethnomethodology, including ethnomethodological conversation analysis, and highlights new and emerging areas for research. With truly authoritative coverage of the state of the art, including current debates, methodological issues, emerging topics for inquiry, new perspectives on established topics, empirical studies, and resources for study, The Routledge International Handbook of Ethnomethodology features lively, challenging discussions by a diverse range of international practitioners that will provide readers with unrivalled scholarship on ethnomethodology and conversation analysis for years to come. Sections include "Contexts and New Resources", "Theoretical Orientations", "Study Approaches", "Lay and Professional Analysis" and "Areas of Application". Moving past the focus on Garfinkel’s "discovery" of the field as a domain of study in the 1950s, and acknowledging how ethnomethodology has changed since then by accounting for both the phenomenologically informed and Wittgensteinian emphases in ethnomethodology, this Handbook constitutes an important update on the study and complexity of the topic. As such, The Routledge International Handbook of Ethnomethodology will be a valuable point of reference for students and scholars across the fields of sociology, communication and science studies, interaction studies, language and linguistics, among others.

This volume offers a comprehensive overview of the most pressing issues and developments in the field of ethnomethodology, including ethnomethodological conversation analysis, and highlights new and emerging areas for research. With truly authoritative coverage of the state of the art, including current debates, methodological issues, emerging topics for inquiry, new perspectives on established topics, empirical studies, and resources for study, The Routledge International Handbook of Ethnomethodology features lively, challenging discussions by a diverse range of international practitioners that will provide readers with unrivalled scholarship on ethnomethodology and conversation analysis for years to come. Sections include "Contexts and New Resources", "Theoretical Orientations", "Study Approaches", "Lay and Professional Analysis" and "Areas of Application". Moving past the focus on Garfinkel’s "discovery" of the field as a domain of study in the 1950s, and acknowledging how ethnomethodology has changed since then by accounting for both the phenomenologically informed and Wittgensteinian emphases in ethnomethodology, this Handbook constitutes an important update on the study and complexity of the topic. As such, The Routledge International Handbook of Ethnomethodology will be a valuable point of reference for students and scholars across the fields of sociology, communication and science studies, interaction studies, language and linguistics, among others.