Essential Issues in Symbolic Interaction


Book Description

Seeking a concise and substantial vision of symbolic interactionism, this volume manifests the crucial research endeavors and key elements that contribute to the vitality of the interactionist theoretical framework.




Symbolic Interactionism


Book Description

This is a collection of articles dealing with the point of view of symbolic interactionism and with the topic of methodology in the discipline of sociology. It is written by the leading figure in the school of symbolic interactionism, and presents what might be regarded as the most authoritative statement of its point of view, outlining its fundamental premises and sketching their implications for sociological study. Blumer states that symbolic interactionism rests on three premises: that human beings act toward things on the basis of the meanings of things have for them; that the meaning of such things derives from the social interaction one has with one's fellows; and that these meanings are handled in, and modified through, an interpretive process.




Symbolic Interactionism: The Basics


Book Description

This book is a survey of Symbolic Interaction. In thirteen short chapters, it traces the history, the social philosophical roots, the founders, “movers and shakers” and evolution of the theory. Symbolic Interactionism: The Basics takes the reader along the exciting, but tortuous journey of the theory and explores both the meta-theoretical and mini-theoretical roots and branches of the theory. Symbolic interactionism or sociological social psychology traces its roots to the works of United States sociologists George Hebert Mead, Charles Horton Cooley, and Herbert Blumer, and a Canadian sociologist, Erving Goffman; Other influences are Harold Garfinkel’s Ethnomethodology and Austrian-American Alfred Schutz’s study of Phenomenology. Symbolic Interactionism: Basics explores the philosophical sources of symbolic interactionism, including pragmatism, social behaviorism, and neo-Hegelianism. The intellectual origins of symbolic interactions can be attributed to the works of William James, George Simmel, John Dewey, Max Weber, and George Herbert Mead. Mead is believed to be the founder of the theory, although he did not publish any academic work on the paradigm. The book highlights the works of the intellectual heirs of symbolic interactionism— Herbert Blumer, Mead’s former student, who was instrumental in publishing the lectures his former professor posthumously with the title Symbolic Interactionism, Erving Goffman and Robert Park.




Symbolic Interaction and Ethnographic Research


Book Description

Examines a series of theoretical and methodological issues faced by social scientists in interpretive and ethnographic studies of human group life.







The Social Construction of Reality


Book Description

A watershed event in the field of sociology, this text introduced “a major breakthrough in the sociology of knowledge and sociological theory generally” (George Simpson, American Sociological Review). In this seminal book, Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann examine how knowledge forms and how it is preserved and altered within a society. Unlike earlier theorists and philosophers, Berger and Luckmann go beyond intellectual history and focus on commonsense, everyday knowledge—the proverbs, morals, values, and beliefs shared among ordinary people. When first published in 1966, this systematic, theoretical treatise introduced the term social construction,effectively creating a new thought and transforming Western philosophy.




Radical Interactionism on the Rise


Book Description

This issue of the Blue Ribbon Papers is must reading for anyone wishing to remain up- to- date on the latest breaking developments in interactionism which could potentially change forever both the history of this venerated American school of thought and, in turn, American sociological theory.




40th Anniversary of Studies in Symbolic Interaction


Book Description

To mark 40 volumes of Studies in Symbolic Interaction, this volume includes a special introduction from Series Editor, Norman K. Denzin. This 40th volume advances critical discourse on several fronts.




Symbolic Interaction and Cultural Studies


Book Description

Symbolic interactionism, resolutely empirical in practice, shares theoretical concerns with cultural studies and humanistic discourse. Recognizing that the humanities have engaged many of the important intellectual currents of the last twenty-five years in ways that sociology has not, the contributors to this volume fully acknowledge that the boundary between the social sciences and the humanities has begun to dissolve. This challenging volume explores that border area.




Identity Theory


Book Description

The concept of identity has become widespread within the social and behavioral sciences, cutting across disciplines from psychiatry and psychology to political science and sociology. Introduced more than fifty years ago, identity theory is a social psychological theory that attempts to understand person's identities, their sources in interaction and society, their processes of operation, and their consequences for interaction and society from a sociological perspective. In this fully updated second edition of Identity Theory, Peter J. Burke and Jan E. Stets expand and refine their discussion of identity theory. Each chapter has been significantly revised and chapters have been added to address new theoretical developments and empirical research in the field. They cover identity characteristics, the processes and outcomes of identity verification, and the operation of identities to detail in particular the role of emotional, behavioral, and cognitive processes. In addition, Burke and Stets explore the multiple identities individuals hold from their multiple positions in society and organizations as well as the multiple identities activated by many people interacting in groups and organizations. Written in an accessible style, this revised edition of Identity Theory continues to make the full range of this powerful theory understandable to readers at all levels.




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