Bakhtin and the Human Sciences by Michael Gardiner

Bakhtin and the Human Sciences by Michael Gardiner

This text considers Bakhtin as a social theorist, discussing him as a major intellectual figure and relating his ideas to theoretical trends and developments. The book is organized around the four main themes of Bakhtin's work: dialogics, carnivals, conversations and ethics and everyday life.

What are we to make of Bakhtin? Nearly twenty years after his death, the full richness of his ideas has still not been digestedFor many people working in the social sciences he remains a mysterious and impenetrable writer. Many are conscious hat his ideas are relevant for sociology and cultural studies, but would be hard pressed to give chapter and verse. Others regard Bakhtin to be figure who contributed to the literary and philologic fields of study.

This accessible and thoughtful text aims to demonstrate the relevance of Bakhtin to the human sciences. It argues that most of the current literature has been characterized by a superficial appropriation of Bakhtinian ideas and neologisms. What has been neglected is a serious engagement with his core ideas and a sustained reflection on their implications for social and cultural theory.

A lively introduction discusses the importance of Bakhtin as a major intellectual figure and situates his ideas in current theoretical trends and developments. This is followed by essays from a diverse group of contributors, organized around the four main themes in Bakhtin′s work: dialogics, carnivals, conversations and ethics and everyday life.

Bakhtin and the Human Sciences is an accurate and insightful attempt to extend Bakhtin′s ideas into the mainstream social sciences and to reconsider Bakhtin as a social thinker, not just a literary theorist.

Michael E Gardiner is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada Michael Mayerfeld Bell is Professor of Community and Environmental Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For his day job, he is principally an environmental sociologist and a social theorist, focusing on dialogics, the sociology of nature, and social justice. These concerns for the world have led him to studies of agroecology, the body, community, consumption, culture, development, food, democracy, economic sociology, gender, inequality, participation, place, politics, rurality, the sociology of music, and more. He is also a part-time composer of grassroots and classical music, and a mandolinist, guitarist, and singer.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780761955306
ISBN 10	0761955305
Title	Bakhtin and the Human Sciences
Author	Michael Gardiner
Series	Published In Association With Theory Culture And Society Ser
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	SAGE Publications Inc
Year published	1998-08-07
Number of pages	256
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.