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Concept of Action, The

$37.95

Concept of Action, The

SKU: 9780521719650 Category: Product ID: 61046

Description

Temporarily out of stock

Title: Concept of Action, The
Author: ENFIELD N J
Format: PAPERBACK
Publication date: 30/09/2017
Imprint: CAMBRIDGE UNI PRESS
Price: $37.95
Publishing status: Active

When people do things with words, how do we know what they are doing? Many scholars have assumed a category of things called actions: ‘requests’, ‘proposals’, ‘complaints’, ‘excuses’. The idea is both convenient and intuitive, but as this book argues, it is a spurious concept of action. In interaction, a person’s primary task is to decide how to respond, not to label what someone just did. The labeling of actions is a meta-level process, appropriate only when we wish to draw attention to others’ behaviors in order to quiz, sanction, praise, blame, or otherwise hold them to account. This book develops a new account of action grounded in certain fundamental ideas about the nature of human sociality: that social conduct is naturally interpreted as purposeful; that human behavior is shaped under a tyranny of social accountability; and that language is our central resource for social action and reaction.

Series: New Departures in Anthropology
ISBN: 9780521719650
Dimension: 228mm X 152mm
Pages: 250

Additional information

Dimensions 228 × 152 mm