The Structure of Social Inconsistencies : A Contribution to a Unified Theory of Play, Game, and Social Action

How are interacting individuals to be assured that social objects constituted in their interacting are the "same" social objects for each participant? This question may be approached by studying carefully the implications of the main hypothesis: The intentionality of perceiving social objects has a structure different from the perceiving of visual objects. This hypothesis implies subsequent changes in those earlier theories of social types and relevance which have been developed in close analogy to phenomena of immediate sensory perception. Few phenomena have found such divergent descriptions in sociological lit erature as have social inconsistencies. They were studied by George Herbert Mead as eruptive "natural" events constituting a social temporality. Alfred SchUtz described them as "explosions" of the individual actor's anticipatory action patterns. Talcott Parsons attempted to grasp social inconsistencies into his frame of "pattern variables," while Erving Goffman dealt with them as disruptions of "fostered impressions of reality" maintained by one or the other dominant team. The present study traces these divergent approaches back to various un checked assumptions concerning the structure and the constitution of social types. Thus, to further clarify the relationship between social types and the relevance structure of interactional situations has been my first objective. This initially rather limited intention widened when the role of social incon sistencies for analysing the differences between play, game, and social action proper in the immediate context of social interaction became apparent. The structure of social inconsistencies seems to hold a key to unifying the theo ries of play and social, action Front Matter....Pages I-VIII Introduction: Social Action and Play....Pages 1-13 Consistency in Social Interaction....Pages 14-18 Some Phenomenological and Pragmatistic Theories of Relevance....Pages 19-44 Social Inconsistencies and Social Types....Pages 45-75 Temporal Typification and Social Temporality....Pages 76-110 Social Inconsistencies and Symbolic Types in Play....Pages 111-138 Toward a Unified Theory of Game, Play, and Social Action....Pages 139-154 Team and Audience....Pages 155-173 Conclusion: The Construction and Solution of Social Inconsistencies....Pages 174-179 Back Matter....Pages 180-184