This book reformulates the sociological subdiscipline known as the sociology of knowledge. Knowledge is presented as more than ideology, including as well false consciousness, propaganda, science and art.

The Structures of the Life-World is the final focus of twenty-seven years of Alfred Schutz's labor, encompassing the fruits of his work between 1932 and his death in 1959. This book represents Schutz's seminal attempt to achieve a comprehensive grasp of the nature of social reality. Here he integrates his theory of relevance with his analysis of social structures. Thomas Luckmann, a former student of Schutz's, completed the manuscript for publication after Schutz's untimely death.

In the face of various contemporary everyday understandings of work, this essay relies upon phenomenological analyses to distinguish key concepts such as action (Handeln), working (Werken), and work (Arbeit). Actions are pre-planned conscious experiences, working is the embodiment of such actions in behavior, and work is a form of working that has for its principal goal the changing of reality. The concept of work as we know it has evolved from structural developments in society such as the social division of (...) labor, the growth of professions, the social distribution of knowledge, the growth of markets, and industrialization. The end results have been that work roles have been separated from kinship structures, that one produces for society at large rather than one’s own needs, and that one is no longer self-sufficient in the maintenance of one’s lifestyle. (shrink)