The "new" sociology of knowledge takes as its starting point experience and action. However, it is not a microsociology limited to everyday action orientation. For human activity does not take place only in an already ordered world, it also produces a "world of things" (Berger & Luckmann, 1967 [1966], p. 18). A sociology of this kind examines the realization of social action—also in relation to its enabling conditions and unrealized alternatives. And, with the help of contrastively constructed ideal types, it observes and analyzes the resulting socio- historical realities in their respective interrelatedness and ambivalence. The empirical objects of research in this "new" sociology of knowledge are thus, on the one hand, reality-producing interactions and negotiations and, on the other hand, products of human activity, forms of socialization and reproduction of groups, milieus, societies, and cultures, and their interpretation patterns and worldviews. The empirical implementation of this sociological research program has yielded a methodology for the controlled reconstruction of objectivated constructions.
On its way from Europe to the US and back again, the spread of the phenomenologically based theory for the sociology of knowledge formulated by Berger and Luckman has contributed significantly to the recognition of the interpretive paradigm in sociology. And in the course of empirical research within this paradigm, a canon of methods not simply of "qualitative" research but rather of "interpretive" research has been developed. Despite differences in approaches to data collection and analysis, there is a characteristic style of research, of knowledge acquisition, and of methodology that has been shaped, in particular, by the proximity to phenomenology.
The Sociology Department at the University of Vienna cares for the heritage of the so called "interpretive paradigm." However, parts of the faculty as represented here at the symposium, are also interested in further developing methods and methodology as well as contributing with a sociology of knowledge perspective to topics like professional competence and interprofessional collaboration as well as inclusion and integration in Austria.
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