Res publica, understood literally: toward the sociology of ''this''

Abstract

The problem of things, that has become one of the central problems of social research, made just a small contribution to the clarification of the notion of «thing». It is shown in this paper that the empirical analysis of the ways of everyday production of «things» allow us to view «thing» as a result of situated practices of handling particular things that are suggested to be considered as these-things. Based on the analysis of situations of airport screening and the loss of things in the subway, this study suggests that there are mechanisms for the production of «things» out of these-things, which presuppose specific ways of categorizing the ownership of thesethings, of mutual constitution of «things» and public space, of ensuring comparability of these-things, and of doing certain actions with these-things. Such an analysis may be called «the sociology of this» because it can be applied to any social phenomena which are ineradicably particular, literal and observable.