Stock of knowledge
From Geography
Throughout a life, a person gains experiences. The total of these individual experiences combined with knowledge inherited from other actors forms the stock of knowledge. The body is the basis of the stock of knowledge. It is the centre of the directly experienced world, in an unmediated way (as opposed to the behaviouristic view) (Werlen lecture 28-09-2010). Schutz believes that much of the individual’s understanding of the world is given to him as he calls the inherited stock of knowledge (Schutz p.205). According to Schutz and Luckmann everyone has at his disposal a stock of elements of knowledge not only acquired in his own experiences, but mainly adopted from the social stock of knowledge (Schutz and Luckmann 1989, p.80). “Meanings are intersubjectively shared. We make sense of our own actions and those of others through a 'stock of knowledge' that is held in common, that we inherit and learn as members of society”(Hughes & Sharrock, 1998).
In everyday life a person finds himself in different situations and has to adapt his actions accordingly. “To get by, the individual must ‘define’ his situation, that is he must establish or decide in what sort of situation he finds himself, what his problems are, and how he can go about gaining his objectives. As a grown man living in a society he does this by drawing on a common ‘stock of knowledge’ about his world which he takes over and develops through his own experiences” ( Schutz p.202).
Social reality is based on a shared, intersubjective stock of knowledge. This shared stock of knowledge is the basis for interactions between people. ‘’ And so while in all societies there will be a part of the common stock of knowledge which is a system of groupings on the basis of kin, age, sex, occupation, power and social status, this is primarily a construct adopted and adapted by the individual to serve this purpose rather than an accurate picture of the world’’ (Schutz p.211). Everyday life is interpreted through a stock of knowledge (meanings, categories, constructs) (Iowa State University, 2005).
According to Hinkle, Schutz was not concerned with children and the learning process. Adults live and act in this paramount reality and, little by little, they modify the stock of knowledge at hand which has been passed down to them by their parents and teachers in the form of types and typicalities (Hinkle 1974, p.113). As the stock of knowledge changes than also the interpretation of reality changes.
References:
Hinkle, G.J. (1974). Schutz and Luckmann: ‘’The structure of the life-world.’’ In: Contemporary sociology: a journal of reviews. Vol. 3, issue 2. Pp. 112-114.
Hughes, J.A. & Sharrock, W.W. (1998). The philosophy of social research. Trans-atlantic Pubns. Accessed chapter 5 via http://scholar.google.nl/scholar?q=The+Philosophy+of+Social+Research+hughes+sharrock&hl=nl&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart
Iowa State University (2005).“Common-Sense and Scientific Interpretation of Human Action” http://www.public.iastate.edu/~s2005.soc.401/schutz(mar30).pdf
Schutz, A. & Luckmann, T. (1989). The structures of the life-world. Volume 2. Northwestern University Press, accessed via google books: http://books.google.nl/books?id=NoMdU5GunA8C&pg=PA198&dq=stock+of+knowledge+schutz&hl=nl&ei=ZpCkTKiDDs6OjAf3pbXFDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=stock%20of%20knowledge%20schutz&f=false
Published by Anouk Soomers and Sabrina Willems
