Berger, Peter & Luckmann, Thomas

Bio Sketch

Peter L. Berger (1929–2017) and Thomas Luckmann (1927–2016) were sociologists of knowledge, working in the phenomenological-sociological tradition of Alfred Schutz. Their co-authored The Social Construction of Reality (1966) is a foundational text of the sociology of knowledge, arguing that reality — especially the reality of everyday life — is socially constructed and maintained through typification, language, and the social stock of knowledge. They matter to Geoffrey's research as a canonical sociological account of the everyday as "paramount reality," distinct from the more critical everyday theorists (Lefebvre, de Certeau).

Key Works

• The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (1966, with Luckmann) — the reality of everyday life as paramount reality; typification, language, and the social stock of knowledge.

Key Concepts

Concepts associated with this author that have pages in this wiki:

• Everyday Life — the everyday as "paramount reality," taken for granted as self-evident facticity.

Relevance to Geoffrey's Research

Berger & Luckmann supply the phenomenological-sociological account of the everyday that the wiki's everyday-life cluster otherwise approaches through Lefebvre (alienation), de Certeau (tactics), and Felski (affirmation). Their "paramount reality," "typification," and "social stock of knowledge" give a neutral, descriptive baseline against which the critical everyday theorists' diagnoses of mystification, colonization, and resistance can be measured. The "recipe knowledge" and "social stock of knowledge" also anticipate the habitus (Bourdieu/Upton) that grounds the wiki's materialist account of the everyday.

Source Support

Source notes in this wiki drawn from this author's work:

• The Social Construction of Reality (Ch. 1–3)