Search for a command to run...
A wide variety of social groups holds similar stances regarding many contemporary social issues: whether it is about corona measures, establishment politics, the European Union or vaccines, time and again an eclectic bunch of people shows a similar level of opposition to or support for the issue at hand. To understand what drives them, it is important to take into account how they themselves view these issues. In his inaugural lecture On the meaning of meaning, Willem de Koster argues that many puzzling social phenomena can be understood by analysing how people ascribe meaning to the world they live in. More specifically, it is important to uncover how they look at things, why this is the case, and how this inspires their actions. This, for instance, sheds new light on low levels of participation in citizens’ initiatives, clarifies different vaccination decisions, shows how people become sceptical about climate change, elucidates why information campaigns often work out differently than hoped for, and reveals why some people do and others do not follow health recommendations. In uncovering this, Willem de Koster not only applies his cultural sociological perspective to a wide range of social issues, but also uses a great variety of research methods. He argues that such a thematically and methodologically general sociology is of crucial importance for developing sociological insights as well as for the disciplinary identity and coherence of sociology.