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PALGRAVE STUDIES IN RELATIONAL SOCIOLOGY Semiotic Sociology Risto Heiskala Palgrave Studies in Relational Sociology Series Editors Nick Crossley Department of Sociology University of Manchester Manchester, UK Peeter Selg School of Governance, Law and Society Tallinn University Tallinn, Estonia In various disciplines such as archeology, psychology, psychoanalysis, international relations, and philosophy, we have seen the emergence of relational approaches or theories. This series, founded by François Dépelteau, seeks to further develop relational sociology through the publication of diverse theoretical and empirical research—including that which is critical of the relational approach. In this respect, the goal of the series is to explore the advantages and limits of relational sociology. The series welcomes contributions related to various thinkers, theories, and methods clearly associated with relational sociology (such as Bourdieu, critical realism, Deleuze, Dewey, Elias, Latour, Luhmann, Mead, network analysis, symbolic interactionism, Tarde, and Tilly). Multidisciplinary studies which are relevant to relational sociology are also welcome, as well as research on various empirical topics (such as education, family, music, health, social inequalities, international relations, feminism, ethnicity, environmental issues, politics, culture, violence, social movements, and terrorism). Relational sociology—and more specifically, this series—will contribute to change and support contemporary sociology by discussing fundamental principles and issues within a relational framework. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15100 Risto Heiskala Semiotic Sociology Risto Heiskala Faculty of Social Sciences Tampere University Tampere, Finland Palgrave Studies in Relational Sociology ISBN 978-3-030-79366-1 ISBN 978-3-030-79367-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79367-8 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. 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The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland A cknowledgements I extend my thanks to those whose help was vital for the publication of this book, that is, the Fellows of the Institute for Advanced Social Research (IASR) at Tampere University, who in our weekly seminar commented on the drafts of the book and provided their work for me to comment on when it was their turn to present. My gratitude is no less great to Marita Husso, my co-author in Chap. 7 and life companion. Living with her has taught me a myriad of things about gender and close relationships over the years, and I dedicate this book to her. I also thank Peeter Selg, who as a series editor and a fellow soul in social, political and semiotic theory invited the manuscript to this series, and Marjukka Virkajärvi, the coordinator of the IASR, which I directed from year 2008 to 2018 in the University of Tampere and, after its merger with Tampere University of Technology, until the end of year 2020 in the new Tampere University before its short- sighted new management run the institute down because they mistakenly thought that academic traditions do not matter. Over the years, Marjukka has in her competent way guided me through an abundance of technical, linguistic and administrative problems and did so also with this book. It is gratefully acknowledged that part of the work required for publish- ing this book was done with the support (and sometimes at the expense) of the Academy of Finland project 308740, which I directed from the year 2017 to 2021. It is also worth noting that this is a book of its own, but it also has a history because Chaps. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8, even if rewritten for this book, draw much of their material from the author’s previously published v vi ACKNOwLEDGEMENTS articles listed below in the order of the chapters: Toward semiotic sociology. A synthesis of semiology, semiotics and phenomenological sociology. Social Science Information 53(2014), 1:35–53; Economy and society. From Parsons through Habermas to semiotic institutionalism. Social Science Information 46(2007), 2:243–271; Theorizing power. weber, Parsons, Foucault and neostructuralism. Social Science Information 40(2001), 2:241–264; Modernity and the intersemiotic condition. Social Science Information 32(1993), 4:581–604; Modernity and the articula- tion of the gender system: Order, conflict, and chaos. Semiotica 173(2009), 1/4:215–231; and From Goffman to semiotic sociology. Semiotica 124(1999), 3/4:211–234. I am grateful to the publishers, SAGE in the first four cases and DeGruyter in the last two, who kindly granted the permissions to use that material for this book. I am also grateful for the insightful comments made on one or more of the chapters when they were mere article drafts and the many corrections suggested to them by the numerous people whom I have already thanked in the published versions of the articles. Praise for Semiotic Sociology “Semiotic Sociology recalls classics of the field, such as Economy and Society by Neil Smelser and Talcott Parsons or Pierre Bourdieu’s Logic of Practice, in its scope, ambition, and subtle synthesis of remarkably different insights from opposed traditions of thought. Heiskala’s brilliance allows him to show how debates central to social theory for more than 100 years look different when properly grounded in the analysis of signification. Moving well beyond the cultural turn and debates about “social construction,” this is a book for the 21st century, which rewrites several vital concepts, among them power, modernity, and social structure. Heiskala’s vision for sociology makes it a human science worthy of the name.” —Isaac Ariail Reed, Professor of Sociology, University of Virginia, USA “This is a wonderfully accomplished book in the tradition of grand theory. Risto Heiskala skillfully integrates a plethora of intellectual traditions, from pragmatism to critical theory, to propose an innovative and perspicacious account of contemporary societal issues, notably surrounding gender.” —Patrick Baert, Professor of Social Theory, University of Cambridge, UK “In Semiotic Sociology, Risto Heiskala tackles a bold and welcome synthesizing challenge: to build bridges between theoretical approaches that have too quickly, yet for decades, been deemed as incompatible in the mainstream sociological selection of analytical tools. He makes this operation sound and seem easy: so evident and clear are elements with which he joins together strands of semiotics, pragmatism and phenomenology, as well as traditions that deal with macro-sociological understandings of the society and different levels of power theories. Yet, it is clear that these syntheses result from career-long scrutiny of theoretical debates but also a constant, careful eye to the needs of contemporary social research, a virtue not always present in theory building efforts. Furthermore, discussing the modernity- postmodernity debate Heiskala offers a sobering relief to all who have preferred to practice civil inattention to this quarrel for long and felt it has not provided ways forward. Searching for such ways, Heiskala takes two directions: the explorations of, first, gender as an illus- tration of the consequences and means of modernization, and, secondly, Goffman’s potential offerings to semiotic sociology, or perhaps to contemporary sociology more at large. Both pursuits will certainly provide food for fruit- ful sociological debate around the book’s proposals. For social scientists striving to solve empirical puzzles of current societies, Semiotic Sociology offers both an encouragement and worthy tools to confidently go the way that often works the best: not a linear development of a theory jealous of its foundations and bound- aries, but a synthetic, creative theorization of contemporary life.” —Eeva Luhtakallio, Professor of Sociology, University of Helsinki, EU Finland c ontents 1 Introduction: Towards Semiotic Sociology and Social Theory 1 References 7 2 Synthesis of Semiology, Semiotics and Phenomenological Sociology 9 Structuralist Semiology 10 Pragmatism 17 Phenomenological Sociology 20 Conclusion: Implications for Cultural and Social Theory 25 References 29 3 Economy and Society in Semiotic Institutionalism 33 Structural-Functionalist Economic Sociology 36 Parsons: The AGIL Scheme of the Social System 36 Economy and Society in Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action: System and the Lifeworld 39 What Is Wrong with Parsons and Habermas? 43 The Challenge of Institutionalism 46 Institutionalism in Economics 47 Pragmatist and Phenomenological Institutionalism 48 Towards a Synthesis: Economy and Society in Semiotic Institutionalism 52 Semiotic Institutionalism 52 Semiotic Interpretation of the System–Lifeworld Scheme 54 ix