By Eviatar Zerubavel - The Fine Line: 1st (first) Edition

by Eviatar Zerubavel

Eviatar Zerubavel argues that most of the distinctions we make in our daily lives and in our culture are social constructs. He questions the notion that a clear line can be drawn to separate one time or object or concept from another, and presents witty and provocative counterexamples in defense of ambiguity and anomaly.

Genres: Sociology, Nonfiction, Read For School, Philosophy, Academic

Paperback

First published October 1, 1991

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first few chapters are ROUGH. I'm glad I stuck with it though, and managed to pick apart Zerubavel's point in the end.

[Abra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Minus one star for saying that anorexia is the female version of autism

[David Glasgow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eviatar Zerubavel has an important insight about the way the human mind categorizes and compartmentalizes reality to create a sense of order in an otherwise chaotic universe. He also recognizes that the opposite of a rigid mind -- one that imposes no structure and leaves us adrift in a sea of ambiguity -- is equally unhelpful. While his advocacy of a mid-way "flexible mind" is welcome, I would have liked him to discuss more about how we can encourage that way of thinking. He spends an inordinate number of pages listing all the various ways that we carve up the world into categories, but relatively little time explaining how and why people are drawn to thinking in rigid or fuzzy ways, and how to foster greater flexibility in a world awash with fundamentalism.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this book for a class on classification. It felt like I was reading a Malcom Gladwell book about classification

[Tristan Bridges · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. Zerubavel is so clear and writes so well. It's like reading Goffman (and he's a student of Goffman's)--only it's edited. I think I might use this to teach intro some day.

[Pam Portenstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book explains how we carve mental categories out of the fluid context of reality. It was a real eye-opener.