Social figures as elements of sociological theorizing

Abstract

ABSTRACT Social figures are an inherently important but largely unnoticed element of sociological theorizing. Like other elements (such as metaphors, analogies, or diagrams), social figures have their own characteristics and their own epistemic possibilities and limitations. In order to elaborate their characteristics, in the first part of the article I will show how social figures appear in sociological theories, such as the ‘flexible self’ in Richard Sennett’s ‘The Corrosion of Character’ and Siegfried Kracauer’s ‘employees’ in his book ‘The Salaried Masses’. I will then outline the main features of social figures and the functions they perform within these texts. In the second part of the article, I will address how to use social figures in sociological theorizing. Following Jean-François Lyotard as well as Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, I will outline the theoretical starting points which form the basis for taking social figures seriously as essential elements of theorizing. On this basis, I will discuss the practical dimension of working with social figures. This involves describing the social figures and theorizing with such figures. The latter means either unfolding new ways of thinking or analyzing the social figure as an indicator of the burning issues of the time.