Social Life of Nothing - Silence, Invisibility and Emptiness in Tales of Lost Experience

List of contents

1. Being Through Nothingness 2. Lost Opportunities 3. Silence and Quietness 4. Invisibility and Absence 5. Holes, Gaps and Emptiness 6. Stillness, Rest and Inactivity Bibliography

About the author

Susie Scott is Professor of Sociology at the University of Sussex. With research interests in symbolic interactionism and dramaturgical theory, she explores questions of narrative identity and self-conscious experience: from shyness to swimming, performance art and total institutions. Susie is the author of Shyness and Society (2007), Making Sense of Everyday Life (2009), Total Institutions and Reinvented Identities (2011) and Negotiating Identity (2015).

Summary

This book explores the realm of negative social phenomena – no-things, no-bodies, non-events and no-where places – that lies behind the mirror of experience.

Additional text

This excellent book is about all kinds of losses, as in death, divorce, miscarriage, abortion, surgery, chronic or acute illness, and a range of life choices. It casts a new perspective on the social construction of loss as “having” versus “lacking.” [...] it is an ingenious, well-crafted, and creative intellectual product. It will be read by many and no doubt will spark academic debates on specific topics related to nothingness and invisibility. The author shows a deep sensitivity to liminality and loss. The courage it required to tackle such a grand theme should be applauded. Different readers will draw different conclusions from this well organized and well-written book.
—J. I. (Hans) Bakker, book review, Symbolic Interaction, (2020)

Product details

• Authors: Susie Scott, Susie (University of Sussex Scott
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.07.2019
• EAN: 9781138297975
• ISBN: 978-1-138-29797-5
• No. of pages: 208
• Series: Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought; Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > General, dictionaries; History, SOCIAL SCIENCE / General, Cultural Studies, Social Theory, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General, PSYCHOLOGY / Social Psychology, Humanities, Social, group or collective psychology, Social classes, Medical Sociology