Senses in Self, Society, and Culture

The Senses in Self, Society, and Culture is the definitive guide to the sociological and anthropological study of the senses. Vannini, Waskul, and Gottschalk provide a comprehensive map of the social and cultural significance of the senses that is woven in a thorough analytical review of classical, recent, and emerging scholarship and grounded in original empirical data that deepens the review and analysis. By bridging cultural/qualitative sociology and cultural/humanistic anthropology, The Senses in Self, Society, and Culture explicitly blurs boundaries that are particularly weak in this field due to the ethnographic scope of much research. Serving both the sociological and anthropological constituencies at once means bridging ethnographic traditions, cultural foci, and socioecological approaches to embodiment and sensuousness. The Senses in Self,Society, and Culture is intended to be a milestone in the social sciences’ somatic turn.

"An outstanding guide to the social study of the senses and an authoritative text for teaching the new and important turn to the body in the social sciences."—E. Doyle McCarthy, Sociology, Fordham University "Wielding a fine balance between theory, method and empirical analyses, this book is a timely contribution to the field of sensory studies and an asset to sensory syllabi for instructors. Elegantly cutting across the various disciplines of sociology, anthropology, geography and other sciences, The Senses in Self, Society, and Culture offers a fascinating array of ethnographic case studies that furnish us with sophisticated and intelligible insights into the manner in which the senses operate in social life."—Kelvin Yow, Sociology, National University of Singapore "Vannini, Waskul and Gottschalk take the study of the senses and sensation out of the psychology laboratory and into the streets, the wine festival, the bedroom, the kitchen. The authors clearly revel in their senses while studying them, and invite the student to do likewise. More than a textbook, this volume is an inspiring manifesto for a sociology of the senses."—David Howes, Anthropology, Concordia University , "Vannini (communication and culture, Royal Roads Univ., Canada), Waskul (sociology, Minnesota State Univ.), and Gottschalk (sociology, Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas) have produced a marvelous slim book outlining a sociology of the senses....Richly and evocatively written, this book will interest interdisciplinary scholars concerned with the body and somatics, senses, and sensuality. Summing Up: Highly recommended." —CHOICE, J. L. Croissant, University of Arizona

Phillip Vannini is Professor in the School of Communication and Culture at Royal Roads University, Victoria, Canada, and Canada Research Chair in Innovative Learning and Public Ethnography. He is author and editor of eight books, including Understanding Society through Popular Music (with Joe Kotarba, 2006, Routledge), and Ferry Tales: An Ethnography of Mobilities, Place,and Time on Canada’s West Coast (2011, Routledge).Dennis Waskul is Professor of sociology at Minnesota State University, Mankato. He is author of Self-Games and Body-Play (2003, Peter Lang), production editor for Symbolic Interaction, editor of net.seXXX (2004, Peter Lang), and co-editor of Body/Embodiment (2006, Ashgate). He has published numerous studies on the sociology of the body, senses, sexualities, and computer-mediated communications.Simon Gottschalk is Associate Professor of sociology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He was editor of Symbolic Interaction (2003–2007), and is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on self-environment relations, postmodern culture, social psychology, qualitative research, the mass media, and interaction in virtual environments.