The multiple reality: A critical study on Alfred Schutz’s sociology of the finite provinces of meaning

Benţa, Marius Ion

The multiple reality: A critical study on Alfred Schutz’s sociology of the finite provinces of meaning

cbnd

Date

2014

Authors

Benţa, Marius Ion

Publisher

University College Cork

Abstract

This work is a critical introduction to Alfred Schutz’s sociology of the multiple reality and an enterprise that seeks to reassess and reconstruct the Schutzian project. In the first part of the study, I inquire into Schutz’s biographical context that surrounds the germination of this conception and I analyse the main texts of Schutz where he has dealt directly with ‘finite provinces of meaning.’ On the basis of this analysis, I suggest and discuss, in Part II, several solutions to the shortcomings of the theoretical system that Schutz drew upon the sociological problem of multiple reality. Specifically, I discuss problems related to the structure, the dynamics, and the interrelationing of finite provinces of meaning as well as the way they relate to the questions of narrativity, experience, space, time, and identity.

Keywords

Alfred Schutz , Phenomenological sociology , Social theory , Interpretive sociology , Finite province of meaning , Multiple realities

Citation

Benţa, M. I. 2014. The multiple reality: A critical study on Alfred Schutz’s sociology of the finite provinces of meaning. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.