Sensing Life
The Social Organisation of the Senses in Interaction
1st Edition
Published on 24. February 2026
304 pages
978-1-040-50908-1 (ISBN)
Description
This book showcases the critical contribution that scholarship in the field of social interaction can make to the study of the senses.
Centred on an understanding of the senses as interactionally configured between people and the ways in which people themselves experience the senses - how they build and negotiate meanings between each other about what is being sensed, what the social implications of the senses are, and how these might relate to sets of activities or interests - it brings together a range of case studies to show how talk, gesture and various aspects of the physical environment can be mobilised to make the senses accountable to others.
Presenting the latest developments in interactionist research on the senses, Sensing Life will appeal to social scientists with interests in interactionist sociology and related approaches to research, and social understandings of the senses.
Centred on an understanding of the senses as interactionally configured between people and the ways in which people themselves experience the senses - how they build and negotiate meanings between each other about what is being sensed, what the social implications of the senses are, and how these might relate to sets of activities or interests - it brings together a range of case studies to show how talk, gesture and various aspects of the physical environment can be mobilised to make the senses accountable to others.
Presenting the latest developments in interactionist research on the senses, Sensing Life will appeal to social scientists with interests in interactionist sociology and related approaches to research, and social understandings of the senses.
More details
Series
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
52 Halftones, black and white; 52 Illustrations, black and white
File size
17,58 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-040-50908-1 (9781040509081)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Will Gibson | Natalia Ruiz-Junco | Dirk vom Lehn
Sensing Life
The Social Organisation of the Senses in Interaction
Book
approx. 02/2026
1st Edition
Routledge
€201.50
Not yet published
Persons
Will Gibson is Professor of Interactional Sociology and Qualitative Research Methodology at the Institute of Education at University College London, UK. His research concerns interaction and communication in diverse areas of practice including education and professional contexts. Technology and, increasingly, affect and sensing are central areas of concern in his work.
Natalia Ruiz-Junco is Associate Professor of Sociology at Auburn University, USA. Her research interests include social theory, social interaction, emotions/affect, and sustainability.
Dirk vom Lehn is a Professor of Organisation and Practice at King's Business School at King's College London, UK. His research focuses on the analysis of social interaction across various settings, including museums, optometric consultations, dance lessons, and street markets.
Natalia Ruiz-Junco is Associate Professor of Sociology at Auburn University, USA. Her research interests include social theory, social interaction, emotions/affect, and sustainability.
Dirk vom Lehn is a Professor of Organisation and Practice at King's Business School at King's College London, UK. His research focuses on the analysis of social interaction across various settings, including museums, optometric consultations, dance lessons, and street markets.
Content
1. Introduction 2. Conceptualising Sensory Practice in Everyday Life 3. Multisensoriality at Work: Touching and Looking at Bones in Forensic Examinations 4. Professional Touch and Projected Experience in a Lingerie Trade Fair 5. Wheeling and Dealing with Flowers: A Sensory Exchange Between a Shopkeeper and a Wholesale Merchant 6. Sensing the Atmosphere in Tightly Controlled Settings 7. Guiding, Sparring and Rolling: Sensing Consent in Cooperative Sporting Interactions 8. Shpilkes and Other Needles: The Sensory Experience of Being Tattooed 9. The Senses-In-Action: Visual and Haptic Encounters with Occasioned Environments 10. Intercorporeal and Intersensorial Empathetic Proprioceptive Practice as Social Action in Rock Climbers' Collaborative Ropework Supported Activities 11. The Consequentiality of Sticky Ham Salad: A Post-Praxeological Study of Visual Impaired People's Sensory Experiences of Food Items 12. Semanticzing Non-Common Sensory Experiences 13. "Sauna Hot": Instructed Sensing in Firefighting Exercises 14. Exploratory Touch in Children's Interaction: Perceiving, Approaching, and Categorising Body-Subjects 15. On Transcendence: Embodiment, Interoception and the Somatosensorium of Altered States
