[Linganth] Publication of Scale: Discourse and Dimensions of Social Life

[Constantine Nakassis]

Dear colleagues -

You may be interested in the publication of a recent volume, *Scale:
Discourse and Dimensions of Social Life, *edited by E. Summerson Carr and
Michael Lempert, featuring chapters by Richard Bauman, E. Summerson Carr
and Brooke Fisher, Susan Gal, Judith Irvine, Michael Lempert, Barbra Meek,
Constantine V. Nakassis, Susan U. Philips, and Michael Silverstein.

In addition to print, the book is available through the University of
California's Open Access program. It can be read, for *free*, online or
downloaded (as e-pub, Mobi, or pdf) here: http://www.luminosoa.
org/site/books/detail/15/scale/. A description of the book is below:

Wherever we turn, we see diverse things scaled for us, from cities to
> economies, from history to love. We know scale by many names and through
> many familiar antinomies: local and global, micro and macro events. Even
> the most critical among us often proceed with our analysis as if such
> scales were the ready-made platforms of social life, rather than asking
> how, why, and to what effect are scalar distinctions forged in the first
> place.
>


How do scalar distinctions help actors and analysts alike make sense of and
> navigate their social worlds? What do these distinctions reveal and what do
> they conceal? How are scales construed and what effects do they have on the
> way those who abide by them think and act? This pathbreaking volume attends
> to the practical labor of scale-making and the communicative practices this
> labor requires. From an ethnographic perspective, the authors demonstrate
> that scale is practice and process before it becomes product, whether in
> the work of projecting the commons, claiming access to the big picture, or
> scaling the seriousness of a crime.
>


“How shall we fathom the world, bringing its varied scales into analytic
> perspective? The authors collected in this bold and subtle volume slow down
> the question, arguing that ‘scale’ is made, not born, and that
> ‘perspectives’ are semiotic accomplishments and not stable points of
> anchor.” STEFAN HELMREICH, Elting E. Morison Professor of Anthropology, MIT
>


“Scale will be a fundamental book for thinking about scalar processes. . .
> . Its engaging, readable chapters offer a range of theoretical
> considerations of how scales arise and work in a variety of social
> settings.” ROBERT OPPENHEIM, author of Kyongju Things: Assembling Place
>


“This highly original volume sheds new light on language and scale. . . .
> The authors show how the scalar aspects of language and the linguistic
> dimensions of scale work together to produce the social logic of extent.”
> ARJUN APPADURAI, Paulette Goddard Professor of Media, Culture and
> Communication, New York University


And, finally, for those of you in the Chicago area, there will be a book
launch event on Monday October 17, 6-8 pm at the Seminary Coop in Hyde Park
(5751 S. Woodlawn Ave. Chicago, IL 60637).
http://www.semcoop.com/event/urban-readers-series-e-summerso
n-carr-and-michael-lempert-scale-discourse-and-dimensions.  Karin Knorr
Cetina (Otto Borchert Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology, and
Chair of the Sociology Department at the University of Chicago) will
moderate and comment at the event.

Best,

Costas
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/linganth/attachments/20160825/b63c0a7b/attachment.htm>