The question Jon Elster addresses in this challenging new book is what binds societies together and prevents them from disintegrating into chaos and war. He analyzes two concepts of social order: stable, predictable patterns of behaviour, and co-operative behaviour.
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 counterex…
This study is about the principles for constructing polite speeches. The core of it first appeared in Questions and Politeness, edited by Esther N. Goody (now out of print). It is here reissued with a fresh introduction that surveys the considerable literature in linguistics, ps…
"This study is about the principles for constructing polite speeches. The core of it first appeared in Questions and Politeness, edited by Esther N. Goody (now out of print). It is here reissued with a fresh introduction that surveys the considerable literature in linguistics, p…
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the expanding Russian empire was embroiled in a dramatic confrontation with the nomadic people known as the Kalmyks, who had moved westward from Inner Asia onto the vast Caspian and Volga steppes. Drawing on an unparalleled body of…
Places matter to people, especially the familiar places that embody their personal and cultural histories and support the social interactions and routines of everyday life. My primary goal in this dissertation is to show how the mattering of places to people is at root an aesthe…
Five classic studies of behaviour in face-to-face interaction, plus a specially-written chapter discussing the historical development of the theoretical framework of these studies.