Mea Culpa: A Sociology of Apology and Reconciliation - Paperback

by Nicholas Tavuchis (Author)

Drawing upon the insights of several disciplines, this work focuses on the structural and experiential dynamics of interpersonal and collective apologetic discourse as means of tempering antagonisms and resolving conflicts in contemporary Western society.

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A book of elegance and grace in the grand sociological tradition, this work could become a classic. Tavuchis forces readers to recognize that all human contact is ultimately dyadic. . . . Apology in Japan is compared to its expression in the West, as is, to a lesser extent, secular apology and religious confession. The normative community, sacred or secular, required definitions of exactly what is forgivable and what is not; Tavuchis uses the perspective of Georg Simmel to examine this construct.--Choice