Michael Barber – författare

Originally written after four years of the National Curriculum, at a time when adjustments and radical changes were being implemented, this book analyses from various points of view what is wrong with the National Curriculum and presents a series of options for putting it right.

Originally written after four years of the National Curriculum, at a time when adjustments and radical changes were being implemented, this book analyses from various points of view what is wrong with the National Curriculum and presents a series of options for putting it right.

Given that Schutz was a philosopher and a social scientist, this book will examine topics in Schutz’s philosophical-phenomenological theory of the social world, such as the second person, the face-to-face relationship, the meaning of human action, signs, symbols, relevance (or interests). Schutz’s explanation of the social world, however, was meant to provide a philosophical foundation for the social sciences, and so this book will also consider epistemological questions, such as traditional knowledge and the opacity of knowledge and theory, that is, the neglected or unseen questions that accompany knowing or theorizing. Also, authors from within the Schutzian framework will address issues within the social sciences, such as the Durkheimian aspects of Schutz’s thought, the sociology of knowledge, and the theory of sociology. It will also explore how Schutzian theory, which is often viewed as a micro-sociology, can be extended to give an account of a macro-sociological reality like modern society (Gesellschaft)

Given that Schutz was a philosopher and a social scientist, this book will examine topics in Schutz’s philosophical-phenomenological theory of the social world, such as the second person, the face-to-face relationship, the meaning of human action, signs, symbols, relevance (or interests). Schutz’s explanation of the social world, however, was meant to provide a philosophical foundation for the social sciences, and so this book will also consider epistemological questions, such as traditional knowledge and the opacity of knowledge and theory, that is, the neglected or unseen questions that accompany knowing or theorizing. Also, authors from within the Schutzian framework will address issues within the social sciences, such as the Durkheimian aspects of Schutz’s thought, the sociology of knowledge, and the theory of sociology. It will also explore how Schutzian theory, which is often viewed as a micro-sociology, can be extended to give an account of a macro-sociological reality like modern society (Gesellschaft)

This book features papers written by renowned international scholars that analyze the interdependence of art, phenomenology, and social science. The papers show how the analysis of the production as well as the perception and interpretation of art work needs to take into consideration the subjective viewpoint of the artist in addition to that of the interpreter. Phenomenology allows a description of the subjectively centered life-world of the individual actor—artist or interpreter—and the objective structures of literature, music, and the aesthetic domain in general. 

The perspective of social science serves to reconstruct the socio-historical structure involved in the creation and reception of the art work. The authors concentrate on this specific theoretical focus which combines both phenomenology and social science and offers an innovative framework for the analysis of works of art from the fields of literature, music, visual arts, photography, and film. Some of the contributions present creative interpretations of a variety of distinct art works in addition to the realization of theoretical reflections on the interdependence of arts, phenomenology, and social science.

This book features papers that were presented at the international and interdisciplinary conference Phenomenology, Social Sciences, and the Arts, held at the University of Konstanz, May 2009, in commemoration of philosopher and social scientist Alfred Schutz, the developer of phenomenologically oriented sociology. It will appeal to researchers, scholars, and students in phenomenology, social sciences, art theory, and the arts. ​

​This book illustrates how non-pragmatic finite provinces of meaning emancipate one from pragmatic everyday pressures. Barber portrays everyday life originally, as including the interplay between intrinsic and imposed relevances, the unavoidable pursuit of pragmatic mastery, and the resulting tensions non-pragmatic provinces can relieve. But individuals and groups also inevitably resort to meta-level strategies of hyper-mastery to protect set ways of satisfying lower-level relevances—strategies that easily augment individual anxiety and social pathologies.  

After creatively interpreting the Schutzian dialectic between the world of working and non-pragmatic provinces, Barber describes the experience of reality in the finite provinces of religion and humor. Schutz, who only mentioned these provinces, laid out the six features of the cognitive style that characterize any finite province of meaning. This book is the first to follow up on these suggestions and depict two newfinite provinces of meaning beyond those in “On Multiple Realities.” While entrance into these provinces reduces everyday life tensions, it does not suffice since pragmatic relevances infiltrate the provinces, as when one uses humor to belittle competing cultural groups or one deploys religion only as an instrument to ensure crop productivity. Instead, liberation from anxieties and pathologies is brought to completion when the ego agens, the 0-point of all its coordinates, discovers its value in relation to the transcendent, even if it fails to realize its pragmatic purposes, or when one becomes comical to oneself through the eyes of another different from oneself.  

This book, aimed at advanced undergraduate, graduate, or scholarly audiences, presents stimulating analyses of the religious “appresentative mindset” or of the healing potential of interracial humor. Drawing heavily on interdisciplinary resources, the book also illustrates the relevance of phenomenological methods and concepts for concrete human experience. Barber offers a fresh understanding of pragmatic everyday life, original descriptions of the religious and humorous provinces of meaning, and a picture of how the overarching intentional stances of meaning-provinces, along with exposure to another perspective, can diminish the pressures everyday life engenders.