This volume aims at giving the reader an overview over the most recent theoretical and methodological findings in a new and rapidly evolving area of current theory of society: social ontology. This book brings together philosophical, sociological and psychological approaches and advances the theory towards a solution of contemporary problems of society, such as the integration of cultures, the nature of constitutive rules, and the actions of institutional actors. It focuses on the question of the background of action in society and illuminates one of the most controversial, cross-disciplinary questions of the field while providing insight into the ontological structure of groups as agents.

This volume offers an interesting and important contribution to the debate as it does well in bridging the gap between the analytical and the continental tradition in social philosophy. In addition, this volume expands the reach and depth of the philosophy of sociality by relating it to philosophical ideas from the late 19th and early 20th centuries and to key thinkers such as Husserl, Heidegger, and Bourdieu.

The contributors include internationally renowned scholars as well as a highly selected set of younger scholars whose work is at the cutting edge of their field. Scholarly, yet accessible, this book is an essential resource for researchers across the social sciences.

Introduction.- Part I. The Ontology of Groups: Their Minds, Intentions, Actions and Interactions.- Chapter 1. Who is Afraid of Group Agents and Group Minds?; Raimo Tuomela.- Chapter 2. Trying to Act Together - The Structure and Role of Trust in Joint Action; Hans Bernhard Schmid.- Chapter 3. Missing the Forest for the Trees: The Theoretical Irrelevance of Shared Intentions; Kendy Hess.- Chapter 4. The Boys Carried the Piano Upstairs: Reconsidering Akratic Action in Groups; Beatrice Kobow.- Chapter 5. Creating Interpersonal Reality through Conversational Interactions; Antonella Carassa and Marco Colombetti.- Part II. Into the Background: Capacties and Cases.- Chapter 6. Social Rules and the Social Background; Michael Schmitz.- Chapter 7. Sharing the Background: Searle, Wittgenstein and Heidegger on the Background of Rule-Governed Behavior; Titus Stahl.- Chapter 8. Becoming Aware of One Another - Two Routes towards Joint Attention; Ulla Schmid.- Chapter 9. Social Ontology, Cultural Sociology, and the War on Terror: Towards a Cultural Explanation of Institutional Change; Werner Binder.- Part III. Social Reality: Its Essence and Constitution.- Chapter 10. Three Ways of Misunderstanding the Power of Rules; Olivier Morin.- Chapter 11. Arbitral Functions and Constitutive Rules; Emanuele Bottazzi and Roberto Ferrario.- Chapter 12. Social Ontology as Embedded in the Tradition of Phenomenological Realism; Alessandro Salice.- Chapter 13. Ontological Dependence and Essential Laws of Social Reality; Francesca de Vecchi.