The Embodied Mind: Building on Wacquant's Carnal Sociology

Abstract

This essay responds to Wacquant's call for a "Carnal Sociology"--an approach best realized through a method Wacquant calls "enactive ethnography." In this essay, I explore the ways in which certain aspects of Wacquant's carnal sociology--specifically the sentient, the sedimented and the situated--can enhance our understanding of cognition and meaning-making. I reference an ongoing research project on the deciphering of olfactory messages to make my case.