David Knottnerus

author of Ritual as a Missing Link: Sociology, Structural Ritualization Theory and Research and co-author of Elder Care Catastrophe: Rituals of Abuse in Nursing Homes and What You Can Do About It

February 4, 2012

J. David Knottnerus is Professor of Sociology at Oklahoma State University. He earned an undergraduate degree in sociology from Beloit College and a M.A. and PhD in sociology from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. Knottnerus has published extensively in the areas of social theory, social psychology, group processes, social structure/inequality, and ritual dynamics. Most of his efforts in recent years have focused on the development of structural ritualization theory and research. This perspective focuses on the role ritual plays in social life. He is currently the coeditor (with Bernard Phillips) of the series Advancing the Sociological Imagination with Paradigm Publishers. His most recent books are, coedited with Bernard Phillips, Bureaucratic Culture and Escalating World Problems: Advancing the Sociological Imagination (Paradigm Publishers), coauthored with Monica K. Varner, American Golf and the Development of Civility: Rituals of Etiquette in the World of Golf (LAP Lambert Academic Publishing), Ritual as a Missing Link: Sociology, Structural Ritualization Theory and Research(Paradigm Publishers), coauthored with Jason S. Ulsperger, Elder Care Catastrophe: Rituals of Abuse in Nursing Homes and What You Can Do About It (Paradigm Publishers), and, coedited with Sing C. Chew, Structure, Culture and History: Recent Issues in Social Theory (Rowman & Littlefield).

As the baby boom generation enters retirement age, greater numbers of people eventually will enter nursing homes. Portraying people who have lived in worked in long-term facilities, and family members struggling with nursing home issues, Elder Care Catastrophe reveals how organizational dynamics and everyday rituals have unintentionally led to resident neglect and abuse. It is the only book on nursing homes to use systematic research and sociological theory to understand different types of nursing home maltreatment. The book provides critical information to any lay person, nursing home employee, policymaker, student or researcher concerned with elder care issues, and offers alternative models for lessening the maltreatment of people living in nursing homes.

Why do people behave the way they do? Up to now, ritual has been seriously underutilized for studying human behavior, i.e., ritual. The structural ritualization theory, attempts to narrow this gap in our understanding of the social causes and consequences of our actions by focusing on the ritualized behaviors that define much of our daily lives. Taking a broad approach to science in sociology this perspective is grounded in a commitment to three goals: the development of theory, substantiating these concepts through empirical evidence, and the application of this knowledge to social problems, dehumanizing conditions in contemporary society, and enriching our personal lives. This book is the first to comprehensively describe the structural ritualistic theory, which since its inception a decade ago, has developed in several directions involving different lines of cumulative research. This book shows how structural reproduction has occurred throughout the world, how rituals can be strategically used and power can influence rituals, and how the disruption of ritualized practices and the reconstitution of ritual subsequent to such events are of crucial importance for human beings. Weaving its way through the book Knottnerus discusses why ritual provides a missing link in sociology and helps us better explain the extreme complexity of human action and social reality.

URL: https://library.okstate.edu/news/celebratingbooks/2012-honorees/david-knottnerus

Last Updated: 12 January 2022