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How to do things with things
pp. 365-384
Abstrakt
J.L. Austin has demonstrated that people can "do things"—bring about social facts — with words. Here we describe how some people do things with things. This is a study of the symbolic use and situated history of material objects during a business negotiation between two German entrepreneurs: of the practical transformation of things-at-hand from objects of use into exemplars, or into forms-at-hand that can be used for the construction of transitory symbolic artifacts. Arranging boxes in a particular fashion can be the equivalent of an illocutionary act, but unlike words things remain on the scene as indexical monuments to prior interactional arrangements.
Publication details
Published in:
(1996) Human Studies 19 (4).
Seiten: 365-384
DOI: 10.1007/BF00188849
Referenz:
Streeck Jürgen (1996) „How to do things with things“. Human Studies 19 (4), 365–384.