Det vardagliga och det vetenskapliga: Om sociologins begrepp

This dissertation concerns the relationship between sociology and everyday life and aims primarily to critically evaluate the positions taken in the theoretical discussion on sociological concept formation and its relation to everyday life and social sciences. The main theoretical positions in the debate are summarized in two ideal typological models: (1) The rationalist theory of an epistemological break between everyday life and social science, here represented by the scholarships of Émile Durkheim, Louis Althusser and Pierre Bourdieu; (2) the everyday-life-oriented theory of continuity between everyday life and social science, represented by Peter Winch, Harold Garfinkel and Dorothy E. Smith. By means of an explorative theoretical reconstruction and synthesis, another aim is to propose a pragmatic theory of the break between the everyday and science. This position can be found in an undeveloped version in Herbert Blumer’s idea of sensitizing concepts, but in a more advanced elaboration in Max Weber’s introduction of the ideal type, and in Alfred Schutz’ phenomenological reformulation of Weber’s interpretative sociology. The dissertation develops the pragmatic theory of break between everyday life and social science with insights from the philosophy of the later Wittgenstein.