Ritual de evitação e o processo de expansão coletiva da esfera ideal

Abstract

The dissertation presents a reflection situated in the field of social theory, whose central object is the “avoidance rituals”, through which we answer the following research problem: the process of expansion of the “ideal sphere” among collective subjectivities. The relationship between the object and the research problem is based on three propositions. The first concerns the intrinsic link between ritual (and the avoidance rituals more specifically) and power. The second is that such relationships can bring together not only presences, but also absences from the social situation in which it is presented. The third is that one of the absences is the relationship between collective subjectivities, which is fundamental to the process of expanding the ideal sphere between collectivities. There are three chapters. In the first, we look at Erving Goffman’s general theory and locate the concept of the “avoidance rituals”, presenting the relationship between the order of interaction and social structure (institutions), as well as considering possibilities for analyzing power based on the author. In the second, we look at Anthony Giddens’ structuration theory and overcome three gaps highlighted in Goffman, which correspond to the absence of a more systematic definition of the processes of consciousness and power, as well as the proposal of social and systemic integration, whose dialectic of presence and absence replaces Goffman’s dualistic view of the relationship between situated processes and those displaced in time and space. In the third section, we propose a recapitulation of the main points analyzed so far, in line with the proposal to unite both authors. Once this has been done, we work on the concept of “collective subjectivities”, by José Maurício Domingues, to fill a gap in Giddens’ work, namely the denial of the role of collectivities. Finally, we present a short reflection on the relationship between the object and the research problem. We conclude that any relationship between collectivities in which one side repeatedly resorts to the avoidance rituals results in the process of expanding the ideal sphere of the other side, regardless of the vectorial direction (who avoids or who is avoided).