Most students of social science, in Norway as
elsewhere, especially in the advanced courses, have The Social
Construction of Reality as part of their study literature. It is a classic
in sociology, translated into a series of languages, even Norwegian, published
2 years ago.
Fighting with textbooks, actually as far back as
before the gymnasium, triggered a forceful wish in me to meet the persons who
wrote the books. I knew someone had been thinking before the book was realized,
and I so much wanted to meet the thinker. But even in my own university
studies, this was rare. In some way the academic world seemed to be a world of
texts only.
However, I never gave up this idea, and when I became
responsible myself for a part of the academic life, I started to invite the
scholars that were authors of books in use. Thus, today, it is my pleasure to
introduce to you professor Thomas Luckmann, one of the authors of the now world
famous book, The Social Construction of Reality.
Actually, Thomas Luckmann holds an honorary doctorate
at NTNU from 1998, among the three others he also has. So he is no stranger to
our campus. But it is no matter of course that he takes time to visit Trondheim
among all other places he has been and is invited to, so I want to express our
heartily welcome once again to you. I might add, it is no secret, that our
fortunate position of being a chosen place by Thomas Luckmann, has much to do
with the fact that Trollheimen is so close with its rivers suitable for
fly-fishing.
Professor Luckmann is not here to give a guest
lecture. He is here to represent the world of thoughts in social science, of
which the Social Construction is a result. The book is a product
of his own creativity, of course, but he would himself be the first to
maintain, this creativity draws upon the unique academic milieu of the Graduate
Faculty of the New School of Social Research in New York, where he
studied – and so did Peter Berger. Not the only important among their teachers,
but definitely one of the very influential, was Alfred Schutz.
Alfred Schutz did intensive studies in sociology,
especially Max Weber. In the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl, whom he also met
during the 1930ies, Schutz found the philosophical foundation that Weber's
sociology – based upon meaningful action – needed. However, he was not
comfortable with all of Husserl's phenomenology. Out of this uneasiness, so to
speak, Schutz developed his concept of everyday life that is fundamental for
his sociology. And this shed light back on the central Husserlian concept of
the Life-World.
These concepts are the point of departure for today's
first introduction to the sociology of Alfred Schutz, upon which Thomas
Luckmann will give his comments, but also we all can make comments and pose
questions to. Thomas Luckmann not only knew Alfred Schutz personally, when
Schutz prematurely died in 1959, Luckmann got his position at the New School, a
most obvious choice according to the sources. Thus, it is no wonder that Thomas
Luckmann also became the one to work out and publish the great project Schutz
partly ahd outlined and done some
fragments to when he died – The Structures of the Life-World.
Oddbjørn Ingebrigtsen
and Thomas Luckmann are no strangers to each other. Oddbjørn is a college
lecturer at HiST. He has already for years been fascinated by Schutz and his
thoughts and is trying to use his approach in his own doctoral project on
obituaries. The level of knowledge about Schutz is rather low in Norway and we
are fortunate to have Oddbjørn as one of the very few possessing some knowledge
giving us the introductions.