The Production of Reality

Jodi O’Brien is Professor of Sociology and Women and Gender Studies at Seattle University. She is the editor of the Encyclopedia of Gender and Society and co-editor of the “Contemporary Sociological Perspectives” book series. Her books include The Production of Reality, Social Prisms, and Everyday Inequalities. Her courses and research focus on difference, power and discrimination, and religion and sexuality.

Preface
PART I - Introduction
Essay - What is Real? - O′Brien
Islands of Meaning - Eviatar Zerubavel
Reality as a Collective Hunch
The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe - Jane Wagner
Researching Social Life
Truth, Objectivity and Agreement - Earl Babbie
Perspective in Social Science - Charon
PART II – Humans Are Symbol Using Creatures
Essay - Shared Meaning in the Foundation of Humanness - O′Brien
Symbol Use, Language and Development
A Clue to the Nature of Man - Ernst Cassirer
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
Final Note on a Case of Extreme Isolation - Kingsley Davis
Categorization, Language and Culture
Mindlessness - Ellen Langer
Metaphors We Live By - George Lakoff and Mark Johnson
Racism in the English Language - Robert Moore
PART III – Producing Social Selves
Essay - Who Am I? Developing Character - O′Brien
The Self as Process of Interaction
Looking Glass Self - Charles Horton Cooley
The Self, the I, and the Me - George Herbert Mead
Significant Others and Self Development
A Theory of Genius - Thomas Scheff
Sissy Boy, Progressive Parents - Daniel Farr
Self and Social Context
The Digital Self - Shanyang Zhao
Identity Careers of Older Gay Men and Lesbians - Dana Rosenfeld
PART IV – Producing Social Identities and Social Scripts
Essay - Learning the Scene - O′Brien
Socialization & Reference Groups
The Internalization of Society - Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann
Reference Groups as Perspectives - Tamotsu Shibutani
Shades of White - Pamela Perry
Naming Experience and Learning the Routine
Becoming a Marijuana User - Howard Becker
The Development of Feeling Norms Underlying Romantic Love - Robin Simon
PART V – Producing Social Order through Interaction
Essay - Meaning is Negotiated Through Interaction - O′Brien
Projecting the Definition of the Situation
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life - Goffman
Behavior in Private Places - Joan Emerson
Identity, Work, Stigma and Self Presentation in Interaction
Smell, Odor and Somatic Work - Dennis Waskul and Phillip Vannini
Panhandling Repertoires and Routines for Overcoming the Nonperson Treatment - Stephen E. Lankenau
Being Middle Eastern American - Marvasti
Emotional Labor and Emotional Capital
The Managed Heart - Arlie Hochschild
Shaping the Selves of Young Salespeople through Emotional Labor - David Schweingruber and Nancy Berns
PART VI – The Social Production of Reality
Essay - Building and Breaching Reality - O′Brien
A Theory of Reality
The Machineries of Universe Maintenance - Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann
Five Features of Reality - Hugh Mehan and Houston Wood
A Conception of and Experiments with “Trust” as a Condition of Concerted Stable Actions - Harold Garfinkel
Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
Self-Fulfilling Prophecies - Paul Watzlawick
When Belief Creates Reality - Mark Snyder
The Social Production of the Cultural Status Quo
Consuming Terrorism - David Altheide
Common Knowledge and the Law - Ewick & Sibley
The Social Production of Difference and Inequalities
Status Inequality and Close Relationships - Scott Harris
The Persistence of Gender Inequality in Employment - Cecilia Ridgeway
VII - Social Life is Messy: Ambiguity, Complexity and Contradictions
Essay - Boundaries and Contradictions
Contradictions and Conflict in Self Production
Double Consciousness and the Veil - W.E. B. DuBois
Wrestling the Angel of Contradiction - O′Brien
Contested Selves in Divorce Proceedings - Hopper
Complexities in Cultural Production
God′s Heart has no Borders - Hondagneu-Sotelo
Talking Back - Bell Hooks
Epilogue