Colin Fletcher – författare

Originally published in 1974, this book evaluates and compares three important styles of sociological research: positivism, symbolic interactionism and critique. The book describes and evaluates each research technique as an experience for the researcher, and the author explains what they themselves have learned of sociological meaning from engaging in it. The book traces the main ideas through their last generations of sociologists and asks what future there is in a particular method.

Originally published in 1974, this book evaluates and compares three important styles of sociological research: positivism, symbolic interactionism and critique. The book describes and evaluates each research technique as an experience for the researcher, and the author explains what they themselves have learned of sociological meaning from engaging in it. The book traces the main ideas through their last generations of sociologists and asks what future there is in a particular method.

Sociology is about society, but what about people? The person in the sight of sociology is all too often a matchstick being. In this original and stimulating book the person is characterized by what is inherent in a social being, and the result is a rich narrative, the story of the person told through events in life. The author holds that for sociological purposes, the person must be seen as perfect: perfectible, perfecting and perfect. He outlines the ‘trialectical’ nature of such a theory, offers a test of it in the making of madness and claims that such a change in vision is appropriate for the sociologist’s critical engagement in the world. It may be claimed that Colin Fletcher has created a new realm of theorizing and a piece of literature for sociology. And, perhaps as important, the reader may catch the rare experience of being spoken with as a person by another person.

Sociology is about society, but what about people? The person in the sight of sociology is all too often a matchstick being. In this original and stimulating book the person is characterized by what is inherent in a social being, and the result is a rich narrative, the story of the person told through events in life. The author holds that for sociological purposes, the person must be seen as perfect: perfectible, perfecting and perfect. He outlines the ‘trialectical’ nature of such a theory, offers a test of it in the making of madness and claims that such a change in vision is appropriate for the sociologist’s critical engagement in the world. It may be claimed that Colin Fletcher has created a new realm of theorizing and a piece of literature for sociology. And, perhaps as important, the reader may catch the rare experience of being spoken with as a person by another person.