From Small Talk to Microaggression

A provocative and eye-opening history of how we have studied and theorized social interaction. In this ambitious, wide-ranging book, anthropologist Michael Lempert offers a conceptual history that explores how, why, and with what effects we have come to think of interactions as “scaled.” Focus...

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Autore principale: Lempert, Michael
Natura: Online
Lingua:inglese
Pubblicazione: University of Chicago Press 2025
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Accesso online:https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/98166
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author Lempert, Michael
author_browse Lempert, Michael
author_facet Lempert, Michael
author_sort Lempert, Michael
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description A provocative and eye-opening history of how we have studied and theorized social interaction. In this ambitious, wide-ranging book, anthropologist Michael Lempert offers a conceptual history that explores how, why, and with what effects we have come to think of interactions as “scaled.” Focusing on the sciences of interaction in midcentury America, Lempert traces how they harnessed diverse tools and media technologies, from dictation machines to 16mm film, to study communication “microscopically.” In looking closely, many hoped to transform interaction: to improve efficiency, grow democracy, curb racism, and much else. Yet their descent into a microworld created troubles, with some critics charging that these scientists couldn’t see the proverbial forest for the trees. Exploring talk therapy and group dynamics studies, social psychology and management science, conversation analysis, “micropolitics,” and more, Lempert shows how scale became a defining problem across the behavioral sciences. Ultimately, he argues, if we learn how our objects of study have been scaled in advance, we can better understand how we think and interact with them—and with each other—across disciplinary and ideological divides. Even as once-fierce debates over micro and macro have largely subsided, Lempert shows how scale lives on and continues to affect the ethics and politics of language and communication today.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1519612025-07-21T15:44:42Z From Small Talk to Microaggression Lempert, Michael scale, social interaction, micro and macro, interpersonal, media history, microaggression, micropolitics thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics::CFG Semantics, discourse analysis, stylistics thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics::CFG Semantics, discourse analysis, stylistics A provocative and eye-opening history of how we have studied and theorized social interaction. In this ambitious, wide-ranging book, anthropologist Michael Lempert offers a conceptual history that explores how, why, and with what effects we have come to think of interactions as “scaled.” Focusing on the sciences of interaction in midcentury America, Lempert traces how they harnessed diverse tools and media technologies, from dictation machines to 16mm film, to study communication “microscopically.” In looking closely, many hoped to transform interaction: to improve efficiency, grow democracy, curb racism, and much else. Yet their descent into a microworld created troubles, with some critics charging that these scientists couldn’t see the proverbial forest for the trees. Exploring talk therapy and group dynamics studies, social psychology and management science, conversation analysis, “micropolitics,” and more, Lempert shows how scale became a defining problem across the behavioral sciences. Ultimately, he argues, if we learn how our objects of study have been scaled in advance, we can better understand how we think and interact with them—and with each other—across disciplinary and ideological divides. Even as once-fierce debates over micro and macro have largely subsided, Lempert shows how scale lives on and continues to affect the ethics and politics of language and communication today. 2025-02-17T02:33:57Z 2025-02-17T02:33:57Z 2025-02-03T11:21:54Z 2024 book https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/98166 9780226832487 9780226832500 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/151961 eng open access image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/98166/1/9780226832494.pdf University of Chicago Press 10.7208/chicago/9780226832494.001.0001 10.7208/chicago/9780226832494.001.0001 decd55ad-cee8-4380-ad0e-0ead8a496f4d 9780226832487 9780226832500 313 open access
spellingShingle scale, social interaction, micro and macro, interpersonal, media history, microaggression, micropolitics
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology
thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics
thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics::CFG Semantics, discourse analysis, stylistics
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology
thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics
thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics::CFG Semantics, discourse analysis, stylistics
Lempert, Michael
From Small Talk to Microaggression
title From Small Talk to Microaggression
title_full From Small Talk to Microaggression
title_fullStr From Small Talk to Microaggression
title_full_unstemmed From Small Talk to Microaggression
title_short From Small Talk to Microaggression
title_sort from small talk to microaggression
topic scale, social interaction, micro and macro, interpersonal, media history, microaggression, micropolitics
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology
thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics
thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics::CFG Semantics, discourse analysis, stylistics
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology
thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics
thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics::CFG Semantics, discourse analysis, stylistics
topic_facet scale, social interaction, micro and macro, interpersonal, media history, microaggression, micropolitics
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology
thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics
thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics::CFG Semantics, discourse analysis, stylistics
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology
thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics
thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics::CFG Semantics, discourse analysis, stylistics
url https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/98166
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