This book is not about defining the ‘real’ meaning of terms, nor is it a pedantic exhortation to ‘speak properly’. Instead, Nassehi’s book looks methodically at the function of these terms in public debates. Key social concepts such as freedom, equality/inequality, identity, crisis and foreignness not only have a lexical meaning they also have a practical meaning gained via their use in debates.

• Armin Nassehi on key terms in current public debates: identity, inequality, etc.

• This book focuses not only on the public use of that conceptual rationality, but also on the social origin of terms used in the social sciences. All of this serves to answer the fundamental question: which problems do these terms offer a solution to?

• On the meaning and effect of 20 key terms in public debate