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  1. Home
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  3. Theorizing the Standoff
  • Cited by 105
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
September 2009
Print publication year:
2000
Online ISBN:
9780511488887
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511488887
Subjects:
Social Theory, Sociology: General Interest, Sociolinguistics, Language and Linguistics, Sociology
Series:
Cambridge Cultural Social Studies
Information

Book description

This book combines original theoretical analysis with real life case studies to examine the nature of the standoff. Starting with the standoffs of Wounded Knee, MOVE, Ruby Ridge, Waco, Freeman of Montana, Tupac Amaru, Republic of Texas, the author explores the archetypal patterns of human action and cognition that move us into and out of these highly charged situations and seeks to theorize the contingency of all such moments. As an emergency situation where interaction is both frozen and continuing, the standoff evokes original ideas about time, space and appropriate or anticipated action and individuals and organisations often find their standard operating procedures and categories deflected and transformed. By tracking and analysing such impositions and deflections, this book aims to develop a theory of the fundamental existential indeterminacy of social life and the possible role that improvisation can play in navigating this indeterminacy and preventing a violent and destructive conclusion. Co-winner of the 2001 Best Book Award given by the Sociology of Culture Section of the American Sociological Association.

Awards

Co-winner of the 2001 Best Book Award given by the Sociology of Culture Section of the American Sociological Association.

Reviews

"Wagner-Pacifici has offered us a cabinet rich in terms and the parameters of a new program by which to understand social action as a dramatic genre." Contemporary Sociology 30, 3 action as a dramatic genre

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