Abstract
Perhaps the title of this Handbook may seem a little odd to the reader. Not only because the notion of “macrophenomenology” is far from being an established concept but also because it appears to contradict the way in which the phenomenological paradigm is commonly regarded in philosophy and the social sciences.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
We use here the term “social theory” in the wide and interdisciplinary sense classically given to it by Giddens (1982, p. 5).
- 2.
- 3.
Both in universities of the Global South and North, it is still a common practice to have separate chairs for micro and macrosociology at sociology and social sciences departments.
- 4.
The distinction between micro and macrosociology becomes established from the 1970s onward (Maiwald & Sürig, 2018, p. 2). Although it is used worldwide, it originated and has the most significant impact in the U.S., while in Europe the distinction between action and structure appears to be more prevalent (Archer, 1995, p. 7). The idea of a “meso” level, mediating between the “micro” and the “macro,” is also introduced in some cases (see Maiwald & Sürig, 2018, p. 4; Weymann, 2020). However, there is no such thing as a “mesociology” as an established research field or sociological subdiscipline. Importantly, the distinction between the micro and the macro levels is never sharp and absolute but rather relative to the viewpoint (see Collins, 1981, p. 984). For an in-depth treatment of the micro-macro divide in social theory, see Greve et al. (2008) and Alexander et al. (1987).
References
Alexander, J. C., et al. (Eds.). (1987). The micro-macro link. University of California Press.
Angus, I. (2021). Groundwork of phenomenological marxism: Crisis, body, world. Lexington.
Archer, M. (1995). Realist social theory. The morphogenetic approach. Cambridge University Press.
Bedorf, T., & Hermann, S. (2020). Political phenomenology. Experience, ontology, episteme. Routledge.
Belvedere, C. (2011). Problemas de fenomenología social. Prometeo.
Belvedere, C. (2022). A treatise in phenomenological sociology: Object, method, findings, and applications. Lexington.
Benzecry, C., & Winchester, D. (2017). Varieties of microsociology. In C. Benzecry et al. (Eds.), Social theory now (pp. 42–75). University of Chicago Press.
Boatcă, M. (2007). Macrosociology. In G. Ritzer (Ed.), Blackwell encyclopedia of sociology (pp. 362–363). Blackwell.
Bourdieu, P. (1989). Social space and symbolic power. Sociological Theory, 7(1), 14–25.
Collins, R. (1981). On the microfoundations of macrosociology. American Journal of Sociology, 86(5), 984–1014.
Eberle, T. (2021). Spielarten phänomenologischer Soziologie. In J. Dreher (Ed.), Mathesis universalis—Die aktuelle Relevanz der “Strukturen der Lebenswelt” (pp. 15–49). Springer.
Embree, L. (2011). Reflective analysis. A first introduction into phenomenology. Zeta Books.
Endreß, M., & Lindemann, G. (2021). Phänomenologien und Gesellschaftstheorien, Call for Papers der Interdisziplinären Arbeitskreis Phänomenologie und Soziologie, Sommertagung der DGS-Sektion Soziologische Theorien. https://soziologie.de/fileadmin/sektionen/iaps/6._Tagung_des_IAPS_-_Gesellschaftstheorien__Delmenhorst_2022_.pdf
Giddens, A. (1982). Profiles and critiques in social theory. The Macmillan Press.
Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. University of California Press.
Giddens, A., & Sutton, P. W. (2021). Sociology. Polity.
Greve, J., et al. (Eds.). (2008). Das Mikro-Makro-Modell der soziologischen Erklärung: Zur Ontologie, Methodologie und Metatheorie eines Forschungsprogramms. Springer.
Gros, A. (2019). Towards a phenomenological critical theory: Hartmut Rosa’s sociology of the relationship to the world. Revista Científica Foz, 3(1), 9–46.
Gurwitsch, A. (2012). The Collected Works of Aron Gurwitsch (1901–1973): Volume III: The Field of Consciousness: Theme, Thematic Field, and Margin. New York: Springer.
Habermas, J. (1981). Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns, Bd. 2. Suhrkamp.
Heidegger, M. (2000). Die Frage nach der Technik. In M. Heidegger (Ed.), Gesamtausgabe, Bd. 7, Vorträge und Aufsätze (pp. 1–53). Vittorio Klostermann.
Henry, M. (2012). Barbarism. London: Continuum.
Hilbert, R. A. (1990). Ethnomethodology and the micro-macro order. American Sociological Review, 55(6), 794–808.
Husserl, E. (1973). Zur Phänomenologie der Intersubjektivität. Erster Teil: 1905–1920. Martinus Nijhoff.
Knoblauch, H. (2016). Die kommunikative Konstruktion der Wirklichkeit. Springer.
Loch, W. (2019). Die allgemeine Pädagogik in phänomenologischer Hinsicht (1998). In M. Brinkmann (Ed.), Phänomenologische Erziehungswissenschaft von ihren Anfängen bis heute (pp. 393–423). Springer.
Luckmann, T. (1980). Lebenswelt und Gesellschaft: Grundstrukturen und geschichtliche Wandlungen. Schöningh.
Maiwald, K. O., & Sürig, I. (2018). Mikrosoziologie. Springer.
Manzo, G. (2015). Macrosociology-Microsociology. In J. D. Wright (Ed.), International encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences, Vol. 14 (pp. 414–421). Elsevier.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1945). Phénoménologie de la perception. Gallimard.
Microphenomenology. (2023, March 17). What is micro-phenomenology? https://www.microphenomenology.com/home
Moran, D., & Szanto, T. (2015). Phenomenology of sociality: Discovering the ‘we’. Routledge.
Münch, R., & Smelser, N. (1987). Conclusion: Relating the micro and the macro. In J. Alexander et al. (Eds.), The micro-macro link (pp. 356–389). University of California Press.
Nasu, H. (2012). Phenomenological sociology in the United States: The developmental process of an intellectual movement. In H. Nasu & F. C. Waksler (Eds.), Interaction and everyday life. Phenomenological and ethnomethodological essays in honor of George Psathas (pp. 3–21). Lexington.
Petitmengin, C. (2021). On the veiling and unveiling of experience: A comparison between the micro-phenomenological method and the practice of meditation. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 52, 36–77.
Psathas, G. (1973). Introduction. In G. Psathas (Ed.), Phenomenological sociology: Issues and applications (pp. 1–21). Wiley.
Reckwitz, A., & Rosa, H. (2021). Spätmoderne in der Krise. Was leistet die Gesellschaftstheorie? Suhrkamp.
Ritzer, G., & Smart, B. (Eds.). (2003). Handbook of social theory. Sage.
Roberts, B. (2019). Micro social theory. Bloomsbury.
Rosa, H. (2016). Resonanz: Eine Soziologie der Weltbeziehung. Suhrkamp.
Salice, A., & Schmid, H. B. (Eds.). (2016). The phenomenological approach to social reality: History, concepts, problems. Springer.
Schutz, A. (1964). Collected papers II: Studies in social theory. Martinus Nijhoff.
Schützeichel, R. (2020). Microsociology. In B. Hollstein et al. (Eds.), Soziologie—Sociology in the German-speaking world (pp. 227–244). De Gruyter.
Scott, J. (2014). Oxford dictionary of sociology. Oxford University Press.
Smyth, B., & Westerman, R. (Eds.). (2021). Marxism and phenomenology: The dialectical horizons of critique. Lexington.
Srubar, I. (2007). Phänomenologie und soziologische Theorie. UVK.
Waldenfels, B. (1992). Einführung in die Phänomenologie. UTB.
Weymann A. (2020). Interaktion, Institution und Gesellschaft. In H. Joas & S. Mau, Lehrbuch der Soziologie (pp. 107–135). Frankfurt am Main: Campus.
Zahavi, D. (2021). We in me or me in we? Collective intentionality and selfhood. Journal of Social Ontology, 7(1), 1–20.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Belvedere, C., Gros, A. (2023). Introduction. In: Belvedere, C., Gros, A. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Macrophenomenology and Social Theory. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34712-2_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34712-2_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-34711-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-34712-2
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)