George Psathas - Böcker

This edited volume presents the life and thought of Kurt H. Wolff, a Jewish refugee from Darmstadt, a student of Karl Mannheim, practitioner of the sociology of knowledge, translator of the classic works of Simmel, Durkheim, and Mannheim, and creator of the radical existential sociology of surrender-and-catch, through multiple modalities. Two interviews provide an autobiographical portrait. Testimonies by close family members, friends, and colleagues allow the reader a more intimate insight into his subjectivity. Excerpts from a travelogue journal kept by his spouse, Carla E. Wolff provide an understanding of how the Wolff's interpreted their situation and times. Several chapters devoted to explicating Wolff's place in the sociological tradition, especially in light of his work in the sociology of knowledge. Several chapters exhibit creative work in the further development of his thought, especially concerning his surrender-and-catch. The thrust of the book is to explicate Wolff's relation to the tradition and to the orientation to which he belongs while at the same time to exhibit how he develops a sociology of radical commitment. This commitment can demand great existential risk in the quest to uncover the universal in the unique—the creation of new meaning (the catch) though the surrender. Wolff's hope is to find possibilities for humankind that lead us out of the crises, to which traditional scientia has been disappointingly ineffective.

Following the thematic divisions of the first three volumes of Alfred Schutz's "Collected Papers" into "The Problem of Social Reality", "Studies in Social Theory" and "Phenomenological Philosophy", this fourth volume contains drafts of unfinished writings, drafts of published writings, translations of essays previously published in German, and some largely unpublished correspondence. The drafts of published writings contain material omitted from the published versions, and the unfinished writings offer insights into Schutz's otherwise unpublished ideas about economic and political theory as well as the theory of law and the state. In addition, a large group contains Schutz's reflections on problems in phenomenological philosophy, including music, which both supplement and add new dimensions to his published thought. All together, the writings in this volume cover Schutz's last 15 years in Europe as well as manuscripts written after his arrival in the USA in 1939.

Contents: Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis; Parties and Joint Talk: Two Ways in Which Numbers are Significant for Talk-in-Interaction; Laughing at and Laughing with: Negotiations of Participant Alignments Through Conversational Laughter; Episode Trajectory in Conversational Play; Mm Hm Tokens as Interactional Devices in the Psychotherapeutic In-take Interview; Meeting Both Ends: Standardization and Recipient Design in Telephone Survey Interviews; The Distribution of Knowledge in Courtroom Interaction; Seeing Conversations: Analyzing Sign Language Talk; Multiple Mode, Single Activity: Telenegotiating as a Social Accomplishment; Assembling a Response: Setting and Collaboratively Constructed Work Talk; A Technology of Order Production: Computer-Aided Dispatch in Public Safety Communication; The Mundane Work of Writing and Reading Computer Programs.Contributors: Steven E. Clayman, Douglas W. Maynard, Emanuel A. Schegloff, Phillip J. Glenn, Robert Hopper, Marek Czyzewski, Hanneke Houtkoop-Steenstra, Martha L. Komter, Paul McIlvenny, Alan Firth, Marjorie Harness Goodwin, Jack Whalen, Graham Button, Wes Sharrock, Paul ten Have, and George Psathas. Co-published with the International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis.

This anthology originated from three conferences, which were held at Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, on March 26-28, 1999, at the Univ- sity of Konstanz, Germany, on May 26-29, 1999 and a session at the SPHS annual meeting at the University of Oregon, USA, on October 5-7, 1999. With one exception the contributions to this volume are revised versions of papers read at these meetings. Each of these conferences took place in order to celebrate the centennial of the birthday of Alfred Schutz, who was born April 13, 1899, and died May 20, 1959. First of all we would like to thank Evelyn Schutz-Lang, the daughter of Alfred and Ilse Schutz, for her continuing support and encouragement. Moreover, Evelyn Schutz-Lang as well as Claudia Schutz, the gr- daughter of Alfred and Ilse Schutz, and the daughter of his son George, gave us the honor of visiting the Konstanz conference in 1999. Evelyn also came to the Oregon conference and sent her personal greetings to those attending the Tokyo conference. We would like to thank Waseda University, the Waseda Sociological Association, the Waseda University International Conference Center, and the Center for Research in Human Sciences in Japan for their generous financial support, as well as the German Research Council (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), the University of Konstanz, the Alfred Schutz Memorial Archives in Konstanz, and the Sparkasse Konstanz for their considerable financial assistance in making the conferences possible.

Following the thematic divisions of the first three volumes of Alfred Schutz's Collected Papers into The Problem of Social Reality, Studies in Social Theory and Phenomenological Philosophy, this fourth volume contains drafts of unfinished writings, drafts of published writings, translations of essays previously published in German, and some largely unpublished correspondence. The drafts of published writings contain important material omitted from the published versions, and the unfinished writings offer important insights into Schutz's otherwise unpublished ideas about economic and political theory as well as the theory of law and the state. In addition, a large group contains Schutz's reflections on problems in phenomenological philosophy, including music, which both supplement and add new dimensions to his published thought. All together, the writings in this volume cover Schutz's last 15 years in Europe as well as manuscripts written after his arrival in the USA in 1939. Audience: Students and scholars of phenomenology, social theory and the human sciences in general.