Abstract
This chapter follows in the footsteps of a generative phenomenology in the work of Alfred Schutz. It asserts that the generative framework is best suited to approach the matter of social institutions and that Schutzian generative formulation of intersubjectivity allows the unraveling of different layers of phenomenality that the specialized discussion considers to be macro-social.
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Notes
- 1.
See Steinbock (1995, pp. 78–80) for an analysis of the motives for Husserl’s undertaking of the regressive procedure and how it oriented phenomenology on the natural world of life.
- 2.
Schutz deployed the concepts of homegroup, home group, and home-group interchangeably. For the sake of consistency, hereafter we will refer to this concept as home-group.
- 3.
Steinbock argued that “among Husserl’s persistent albeit scattered occupation with the problems of normality and abnormality, one can articulate a cogent theory of these notions” (Steinbock, 1995, p. 126).
- 4.
For a more detailed presentation of the Schutzian theory of relief see López (2021).
- 5.
It is important to mention that we are referring here to the “standard form” of commodity, and we intentionally set aside the diversification of the cosmos of commodities linked to the new economic arrangements upon which capitalist accumulation relies. The diversification of the cosmos of commodities was studied by Luc Boltanski and Arnaud Esquerre (Boltanski & Esquerre, 2020) and depends, from their viewpoint, on the modalities according to which value is assigned to them. They identified three forms of value, which correspond, respectively, to three different types of capitalist economy and different types of commodities: industrial economies utilize the “standard form,” financial economies the “asset form,” and enrichment economies the “collection form.” Though relevant, this reflection is beyond the scope of our work.
- 6.
Alain Coulon asserted that “the micro-macro relationship is artificial; it is not found in the data but is the work of the sociologist” (1995, p. 44). Schutz would agree with that statement. He mentioned that the social divisions that the sociologists approach with terms such as “social classes,” “system,” “role,” “status,” and “role expectation” are “experienced by the individual actor on the social scene in entirely different terms” (Schutz, 1964a, p. 232).
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López, D. (2023). The Durable Dimensions of Social Institutions: A Generative Phenomenological Approach. 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_9
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