Wittgenstein and social studies (Review of Albert Ogien's Practical Action: Wittgenstein, Pragmatism and Sociology)

In 2018, Cambridge Scholars Publishing published a book by French sociologist Albert Ogien, Practical Action: Wittgenstein, Pragmatism and Sociology. Among persons important for Ogien is Harold Garfinkel, the founder of ethnomethodology, and Irving Hoffman, the creator of symbolic interactionism. These authors respond in a similar way to the question of the nature of obligation and common action posed by Durkheim at the dawn of sociology (the community functions through the sharing and execution of common compulsory obligations by individuals). According to Durkheim, common actions can be viewed in the context of the global structure of social order (and attention is focused on the functioning of social institutions), or in the context of practical activity within the framework of direct common actions. Hoffman and Garfinkel choose the second alternative. According to Garfinkel, the production of social order is of a local nature (and it is within this order that social obligations and social norm are found, reproduced and justified). According to Hoffman, the structure of human experience is of decisive importance within the formed frame system. The structure of human experience is (also) reproduced in practical action and does not descend from above social institutions to individuals. This is the main theme of Ogien's microsociological approach. Ogien's new book consists of six small chapters. The biggest ones are devoted to Wittgenstein and to Garfinkel's reading of George Herbert Meade. The final chapter deals with John Dewey's concept of democracy. In the review, the main interest lies in the intersections of pragmatism and sociology traced by Ogien (from theory to empirical research) and in Ludwig Wittgenstein's contribution to sociology (through the prism of a pragmatist approach). Accordingly, the author of the review admits retellings of Ogien's main theses.

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