Naturalist Methods in the Sociology of Creation: The Case Against Reductionism

The Sociology of Culture has much to say when it comes to the ever-changing general consensus on what constitutes legitimate culture and definitions of creativity. The naturalistic studieson cognition in social and cognitive sciences show this empirically (Bourdieu, 1979: Becker, 1982, 2002; Sennett, 2012; Author, 2014). Creative cognition is part of an institutional context. However, the influential culturalist branch of cognitive sociology (CCS) reduces creativity toa cognitivist psychological level (Lizardo and Strand, 2010). We start from the conjecture that the Sociology of Culture can draw on the naturalistic paradigm of cognition to explain creativity without falling into reductionist or atomist positions. The authors take the diversityof theoretical-empirical proposals into account in identifying the starting points for focusing the debate at both the macro and micro levels. The body of the article comprises a literature review which, while not exhaustive, offers a full picture of the pragmatic and integrated models of creativity. The studies analysed present inter-subjective processes of creationand the transmission of variable legitimate criteria concerning cultural consumption such as categorisations, evaluations and aesthetic judgments. The sociological perspective offers scope for strengthening critical tools for examining creativity.

The problem of universalism in (diachronic) cognitive linguistics

Modern cognitive science and cognitive linguistics are characterized by a universalist perspective, i.e., they are investigating features and principles of cognition which can be found in all members of the human species. This in turn means that they should not only be relevant for present-day cognizers and language users, but also historically. This theoretical, programmatic paper first explores this notion of universalism in cognitive science and cognitive linguistics and suggests that the notion of cognitive universalism should be supplemented by perspectives from cognitive sociology and social cognition. These offer a middle ground in that they look at cognition as it is socially and culturally grounded, and hence inter-individual, but yet not universal. A final section on diachronic cognitive linguistics shows that in language history all three perspectives, individual, social, and universal, can have their place, and that one line of future research should explore this new perspective of social cognition in language history in order to arrive at a fuller picture of historical language users and their cognition.

Between normality and disability: Sensitive cognitive boundaries

Within the framework of a cognitive sociology of everyday life (Schütz, 1962; Berger and Luckmann, 1966; Zérubavel, 1997), this article proposes to explore the effects of normality and of norms, accepted as reality/truth, on people who are experiencing rare situations. First, we will analyze the practical consequences of these norms on the use of the body and the physical environment. Then, based on the sociology of knowledge of everyday life, we will ex-plain the partial lack of semanticization (Gardien, 2008) of the reality lived by people in rare situations. These analyses will highlight the major role of generally accepted criteria of rele-vance, and of the poorly recognized perceptual and cognitive boundaries that result from them. The conclusion will lead to courses of action aimed at broadening the field of intersub-jectivity to include greater cognitive diversity.

Loves Me or Loves Me Not? Passing through the Forest of Love Symbols and Unveiling Its Social Nature

This article unveils how love, as a signified, can be constituted by the artificially constructed symbolic signs (“signifiers”) represented in our everyday life. Only when we regard love as a symbolic system and try to decipher its meanings can we understand how love is transmitted through sociomental patterns. This article attempts to provide examples from language, symbolic materials, the imprinted body, the code of temporality, and the spatial aspect to interpret the general elements that commonly form the forest of love symbols. Moreover, this article introduces cognitive sociology as a significant analytic approach to examining love. On the one hand, taking the “semantic square” proposed by Zerubavel, I articulate that when we want to understand the meanings of symbols, we usually have to embed them into their symbolic context. On the other hand, based on the distinction between marked and unmarked social categories proposed by Brekhus, I explain that more often than not, we can shed light on the marked love types even when we focus on love issues. Last, this article reminds us that the symbols of love are not fixed and constant but change according to the transformations of context.

Modernity, postmodernity, and late modernity: A review of sociological theories in contemporary Japan

This article reviews three Japanese sociological theorists, who explore the nature of modernity, or late modernity, in relation to the postmodern assumption that modernization, or late modernization, is far from a single-track evolutionary process. In his criticism of viewing the modernization theory via an indigenous perspective, Yosuke Koto considers the exogenous impacts of advanced countries to illuminate the hybrid nature of modernity. Based on cognitive sociology, Masataka Katagiri explores the transformation of the self during individualization since the 19th century to illuminate several aspects of individualization in late modernity. In contrast to the symbolic model of modern sociological theories since Durkheim, Takeshi Mikami develops a diabolic theory that reveals a new perspective on the connection between individuals and society in late modernity. Referring to Japan as an important case study, these three sociological theorists provide theoretical insights on some of the complex aspects of late modernity.

Distinctions and Something Between: An Inspection of Eviatar Zerubavel’s Concept Driven Sociology

The paper presents short summaries and analyses of two books by Eviatar Zerubavel (2018a; 2020) that are demonstrations of his approach to cognitive sociology. The first book (2018a) shows examples of the analysis in Zerubavelian cognitive sociology, and the second one is a methodological and theoretical elaboration of his approach described in formal terms. We analyze the approach presented at the end of the paper, showing that the analysis of distinctions and perceptive categories is essential in Zerubavel analysis. Still, there is an unclear dimension (in between) included in the contexts of perception, lived experiences, and perception of the world beyond the categories that we introduce in our analysis.

How cognitive links and decision-making capacity shape sectoral experts’ recognition of climate knowledge for adaptation

Scientific climate knowledge is often argued to be a key ingredient in climate adaptation. Focusing on individual sectors and institutions, researchers have given insights as to how climate knowledge is reframed according to institutional cultures and priorities. This study extends such scholarship by comparing how four sectors—greenspace management, building technology, spatial planning, and health—perceive, judge, transfer, and appropriate knowledge on urban heatwaves, and what adaptation options are proposed. Based on semi-structured interviews, documentary materials and observations of two workshops collected in two Swiss cities, I draw on Eviatar Zerubavel and his ‘cultural cognitive sociology’ whose work emphasises how collectively shared patterns of recognition and thinking guide and facilitate human judgement. I find two factors to influence knowledge appropriation. On the one hand, the formative dimension of knowledge underscores that experts understand climate knowledge similarly when a sector shares key concepts with climate science. If such ‘cognitive links’ are missing, the answers on how heatwaves impact experts’ work are more varied. On the other hand, the performative dimension of knowledge highlights that experts’ eagerness to adapt is influenced by diverging technical, legal, and social possibilities. When experts’ decision scope is large, then uptake of climate knowledge is more fluid. With a more explicit understanding of why sectors differ in their appropriation and integration of climate knowledge into their work, this study is a reminder that only fitting knowledge is of value to sectoral experts.

Exploring social aspects of task perception using cognitive sociology

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore effects of individuals' social context on their perception of a task, for better understanding of social aspects of task-based information seeking behavior.Design/methodology/approachThis study took a qualitative case approach and conducted semi-structured one-on-one interviews with 12 participants. A cross-context comparative approach was chosen to identify effects of the social contexts on individuals. For comparative analysis, the research population was tenured faculty members in two different disciplines, natural sciences and humanities. The interview data were analyzed and coded using NVivo12 through an open coding process.FindingsThe results demonstrate that the same task type is differently perceived by individuals in different social contexts. Reasons for the different perceptions in the different contexts are associated with social factors of the disciplines, specifically social norms and practices.Originality/valueThis study uses a novel theoretical framework, cognitive sociology, to examine social aspects of human perception in relation to task-based information seeking behavior, which has been little understood theoretically and empirically in the field of information science.