Pragmatism has experienced a renaissance in social theory in recent years. This is no wonder
since the so-called classical pragmatists especially John Dewey and George Herbert Mead
outlined a highly original theory of social life. This book builds on pragmatist ideas and
argues that social structures are first and foremost based on habitualized action. Thus the
insights of Dewey and Mead have profound implications for the way in which we think about many
of the fundamental issues in social theory. These insights are discussed for example in
relation to contemporary debates on the nature of intersubjectivity institutions the public
and Pierre Bourdieu's concept of habitus. The book shows that pragmatism offers a naturalist
action-centered way of conceptualizing culture and social structures.
