Macro Strata of the Social World: Institutions, Social Classes, and the State

CARLOS BELVEDERE

The Palgrave Handbook of Macrophenomenology and Social Theory

Palgrave Macmillan

Lugar: Cham; Año: 2023; p. 11 - 27

Phenomenology is deemed to be a microsociological approach focused on face-to-face relationships, everyday life, and subjective processes. In this view, the current literature neglects the important insights that can be found in the phenomenological tradition. Broadly speaking, mainstream sociology consider Schutzian phenomenology as a subjectivist social theory. That is, it is a one-sided social-theoretical approach that merely focuses on the voluntary, everyday (inter)subjective (inter)actions taking place at the microsociological level, thereby systematically neglecting the constraining, objective, and macro aspects of social reality. I will not simply contest this idea. Rather, I will turn this argument against its champions by claiming that it is not phenomenological sociologists but con temporary social theorists who are one-sided. It is not that phenomenology neglects the objective macro strata of the social world but that the abovementioned perspective fails to grasp the phenomenological view on these issues. With that aim, I will address Schutz’s notion of collective entities since the subject matters of our chapter (namely, institutions, social classes, and the state) are considered by him as entities of that kind.