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Macro-social Awareness in Everyday Life: Toward a Phenomenological Theory of Society

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Abstract

In this chapter, I aim to take a first step toward developing a phenomenological theory of modern society. My focus is on one of the partial tasks of this ambitious project: exploring what is it like to experience society in the first-person perspective. Specifically, I limit my analysis to a mode of subjective experience of society that I term macro-social awareness via cognitive mapping. The chapter is divided into three sections. Section “The Project of a Phenomenological Theory of Society” outlines the project of a phenomenological theory of society. Section “What Is It Like to Experience Modern Society?” addresses the general issue of how society is experienced in the first-person perspective. Finally, the last and central section (“Cognitive Mapping as a Way to Overcome the Transcendence of Society”) offers a preliminary phenomenological analysis of macro-social cognitive mapping in everyday life.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In this connection, it is important to acknowledge the existence of “multiple modernities,” that is, different versions or modes of manifestation of modernity in divergent geographical and historical contexts (Reckwitz & Rosa, 2021, pp. 263–264).

  2. 2.

    I am referring here to Marx & Engels’ (see 1958, pp. 26–27) conception of “ideology” as “false consciousness” and to Durkheim’s (1986, p. 17) account of “pre-notions.” Despite the undeniable differences between the Marxian and the Durkheimian theories of society, both conceive of doxa as a veil blocking access to true social-scientific knowledge.

  3. 3.

    The contemporary influence of conspiracy theories on a large part of the population of Western societies should not be overlooked here (see Butter, 2020). Arguably, however, these theories primarily operate on the level of explicit self- and world-interpretations, not at that of pre-reflective agency. For an analysis of the different levels of self-interpretation and their potential discrepancies, see Rosa (2012, pp. 111–117).

  4. 4.

    This concept is loosely inspired by Merton’s (1968, pp. 39–40) idea of “middle-range theories.”

  5. 5.

    Marion (2002) has developed a phenomenological account of “exceedance” or “excess” in connection with his analysis of “saturated phenomena.” The idea of conceptualizing the macro-social as a saturated phenomenon stems from Carlos Belvedere.

  6. 6.

    Schutz borrows all these concepts from Husserl.

  7. 7.

    Gunderson (2021) offers an interesting analysis of the experience of macro-social structures as a form of horizonal or marginal consciousness not far from the one I provide here.

  8. 8.

    In contrast to Schutz, Gurwitsch (see 2012, p. 4) speaks of three fundamental “domains” of the field of consciousness, namely, the “theme,” the “thematic field,” and the “margin.”

  9. 9.

    Importantly, with the emergence of the cyberspace in the last decades, the Umwelt has expanded to include people located in the Mitwelt but with whom I can establish quasi-face-to-face relationships, either via videotelephony or via chat. These alter egos have been called “consociates contemporaries” (see Zhao, 2004). Along these lines, WhatsApp chat groups could be understood as quasi-primary groups.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Jena, Germany

    Alexis Gros

  2. Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Alexis Gros

  3. CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Alexis Gros

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  1. Instituto de Investigaciones Gino Germani, CONICET – Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Carlos Belvedere

  2. Institut für Soziologie, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany

    Alexis Gros

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Gros, A. (2023). Macro-social Awareness in Everyday Life: Toward a Phenomenological Theory of Society. 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_3

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