Eviatar Zerubavel

The fine line : making distinctions in everyday life

Eviatar Zerubavel argues that most of the distinctions we make in our daily lives and in our culture are social constructs. He questions the notion that a clear line can be drawn to separate one time or object or concept from another, and presents witty and provocative counterexamples in defense of ambiguity and anomaly.

Social memories: Steps to a sociology of the past

This article is an attempt to develop a comprehensive framework to examine memory from a sociological perspective with a particular emphasis on the impersonal, conventional, collective, and normative aspects of the process of remembering. After discussing the social context of remembering as well as various traditions andrules of remembrance, the article examines the process ofmnemonic socialization. It then moves on to identify variousmnemonic communities(the family, the workplace, the ethnic group, the nation) as well as various social sites of memory(documents, stories, photograph albums, archaeological ruins, the calendar). Following a discussion of the way in which holidays allow mnemonic synchronization,the article ends by examining the politics of remembrance as manifested in various mnemonic battlesover the social legacy of the past.

Lumping and Splitting: Notes on Social Classification

This paper examines the mental process of grouping “similar” things together in distinct clusters and separating “different” clusters from one another. The role language plays in providing us with seemingly homogeneous mental niches for lumping things together yet at the same time allowing us to carve seemingly discrete categories out of experiential continua directs the sociological study of classification to intersubjective, conventional mindscapes that are neither personal nor “logical.” The paper identifies a nonmetric, topological mode of thinking that involves playing down intracluster while exaggerating intercluster mental distances and ends with some methodological observations of the need to approach classification from a comparative perspective as well as highlighting the role of spatial zoning, rites of separation, and Freudian slips in the study of the social construction of difference and similarity.

Temporal man : the meaning and uses of social time

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The French Republican Calendar: A Case Study in the Sociology of Time

This paper is a sociological analysis of the most radical attempt in modern history to challenge the Western standard temporal reference framework, namely the French Republican calendrical reform of 1793. This reform obliterated the existing system of units of time and timereckoning and dating frameworks by introducing a new annual cycle, new months, a new weekly cycle, a new subdivision of the daily cycle, and a new chronological dating framework. The paper first analyzes the symbolic function of the Revolutionary Calendar, namely, the representation of three main themes of the French Enlightenment: secularism, naturalism and rationalism. It then brings into focus three major factors which account for its failure: totality of the obliteration of the traditional sociotemporal order, overemphasis on secularization, and advocation of nationalistic particularism at the expense of a practical and cognitive disruption of temporal coordination on a global level.

Hidden in plain sight : the social structure of irrelevance

Preface 1. Noticing and Ignoring 2. Figure and Background 3. Searching and Hiding 4. The Social Organization of Attention 5. Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

Private-time and Public-time

A most significant consequence of the growing division of labour in modern society has been man’s multiple participation in the social world. In traditional societies, the person’s various group affiliations are interrelated in a sort of concentric pattern, so that membership in any social group or network necessarily implies membership in some others. In modern society, on the other hand, these affiliations may be represented by a web of intersecting circles which are not contained in — and are, at least in part, independent of — one another (Simmel, 1964).

The Five Pillars of Essentialism: Reification and the Social Construction of an Objective Reality

Drawing on Berger and Luckmann’s discussion of reification, this paper examines the five aspects of essentialism that make the social construction of a seemingly objective reality possible. The five aspects are religion (as typically manifested in the idea of ‘God’), science (as typically manifested in the idea of ‘Nature’), reason (as typically manifested in the notion of ‘Logic’), universalism (as typically manifested in the notion of ‘Everybody’), and eternalism (as typically manifested in the notion of ‘Always’). They constitute the foundations of the process of making the merely intersubjective and conventional seem objective and inevitable.

Taken for Granted: The Remarkable Power of the Unremarkable

Eviatar Zerubavel er en profilert og produktiv sosiolog som har spilt en sentral rolle i revitaliseringen av den såkalte kognitive sosiologien. Zerubavels utgangspunkt er at tenkning alltid medfører at man deltar i en bestemt sosiokulturell tradisjon; at vår forståelse av verden «alltid allerede» er intersubjektiv, og at kognitive kategorier derfor må forstås med utgangspunkt i de mange tenkningsfellesskap tenkende individer med nødvendighet tar del i. Ved å følge opp disse grunnprinsippene, som bygger på innsikter fra klassiske sosiologiske tenkere som Mannheim, Schütz og Simmel, blir det ifølge ham mulig å skape rom for et genuint sosiologisk perspektiv på våre kognitive prosesser (Zerubavel, 1999). I Taken for Granted ønsker Zerubavel å benytte en slik innfallsvinkel til å øke vår forståelse av skillet mellom de fenomener som er markerte (marked) og dermed kulturelt fremtredende og betydningsfylte på den ene siden, og de som er umarkerte (unmarked) og gjerne tatt for gitt eller usynlige på den andre. De seks kapitlene tar for seg forskjellige sider ved dette skillet. Zerubavel utdyper og illustrerer disse ved hjelp av en lang rekke underholdende og klargjørende eksempler hentet fra de fleste av sosiologiens underdisipliner så vel som fra hverdagen. Boka har flere klare styrker. Den er kort (142 sider), lettlest og velskrevet. Spesielt for bachelorstudenter og ivrige lesere av populærvitenskap vil nok boka være en rik kilde til kultursosiologiske innsikter. Et stort pluss er at den inneholder gode diskusjoner av viktige politiske strømninger som identitetspolitikk, dyrevelferd og nasjonalisme. Allikevel opplever jeg at boka mangler originalitet. Har man lest for eksempel de Beauvoir, Foucault, Bourdieu, Said eller gode kultursosiologiske oversiktsverker, bør det meste