Search

This article pushes interactionist sociology forward. It does so by drawing out the implications of a simple idea, that to understand the situation--the mise en scene of interactionist theory--we must understand it in relation not only to past-induced habits of thought and action but to future situations anticipated in interaction. Focusing especially on the rhythmic nature of situations, the paper then argues that such a recalibration both unsettles core tenets of interactionism and helps solve some problems in the sociology of culture. As an illustration, it focuses on two such puzzles--the place of disruption in interaction and the relationship between the notion of "boundaries" and of "distinctions" in the sociology of culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The free daily papers, Metro and 20 Minutes, originally from Scandinavia, have conquered many national markets with a single recipe: short, illustrated and easily consumed content distributed in large urban areas during the morning or evening peak hours. However, could one say that the urban news mediatized by this press is structured according to the standardized infotainment and sensationalism objectives that are often associated with the commercial media? The research based on three case studies shows that these publications, which have a single logo and format worldwide, develop a specific, place-bound editorial line of exposing the most important risks perceived within late-modern cities by its reporters and their audiences. Interactionism and, more precisely, the ‘social world’ approach to a profession can help understand these differentiated representations of metropolitan dangers by offering a more place-bound and socio-anthropological perspective of journalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Karl Popper’s world 3 theory proposes that the products of the human mind can be considered a third world, partially autonomous of the mental and physical worlds, and real, because it can produce effects on both. When he first introduced the idea in 1960, he took even his close colleagues and students by surprise. Yet tracing the development of his idea shows a great deal in Popper’s previous work and thought led up to what seemed his startlingly new proposal. And far from being the philosophy of his dotage, as some sneered, his world 3 proposal, once fully shaped, became a keystone of his thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the effects of readers on writing development requires prior conceptualization of the relationship between writers and readers. Recently two major schools of thought have emerged concerning this relationship: social constructionism and social interactionism. Influenced by Saussure's structuralist concept of la langue as a set of language norms and Durkheim's concept of social fact, social constructionists emphasize normal, standard discourse: Their key principle is empirical consensus, their unit of analysis is the canon, and their level of social analysis is the community. By contrast, social interactionists, following Bakhtin, focus directly on situated, heteroglossic discourse and seek to characterize la parole, or language use, in useful terms: Their key principle is reciprocity between conversants, and their unit of analysis, as well as their level of social analysis, is the communicational dyad (writer-reader pairs; speaker-listener pairs). Because they focus on whole writer-reader communities, social constructionists deal with the effects of readers on writers in general terms, and they typically reify readers into “the Reader” when dealing with individual cases. By contrast, social interactionists, who concern themselves with describing actual, individual writers and readers, often in ethnographic studies, must articulate a principled analysis of writers and readers without analytic access recourse to group norms. This article first contrasts social constructionist and social interactionist approaches to the problem of discourse and then examines recent social interactionist studies concerning the effects of readers on writers' development, including investigations of word-segmentation skills, peer conferencing, and instructional discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a perspective on work time patterns is outlined; a perspective that emphasizes the importance of observing how work time is subject not only to task and contract agreements but also to social norms and individual needs to express identity. The article takes its starting point in Goffman's dramaturgic approach. From this perspective, the workplace is viewed as a stage where a satisfactory work performance is judged not by the actual work performance but by the performance of work; or rather, perhaps, by how a morally good working day is enacted through text, words, and gestures. Depending on social context work, time patterns can be seen as an expression of commitment, dedication, professionalism, and masculinity. The article concludes with a discussion on the potential implications of these issues regarding stress and health, as well as the possibilities of participation in the labor market under equal conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our interest in this article is to explore how people reshape their mind-sets during walking in different urban places and spaces in the city. We argue that mind-set changes are socially mediated in relation to specific environments. Mentally closed environments can be opened through social interaction and social reflection of meanings of environments and spaces. This process presupposes personal experiences in environments and social closeness with others; it also presupposes familiarization with other people’s social worlds and arenas. We present how people’s interaction with environments, buildings, objects, and artifacts creates new meanings, affects people’s social interaction and appreciations. Theoretical framework for understanding this process is constructed using social worlds/arenas theory based on symbolic interactionism and “embodied placemaking” assumptions. Our methodology of is called video-recorded walking combines principles of walking ethnography and video ethnography. In the analysis, we pay attention to key situations and moments which transform people’s mind-sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are salesclerks seen as better, more powerful, or more active when they drive Mustangs? What about entrepreneurs? What about driving a mid-sized car? Intuitively, we have ideas about these, but much of the research on the affective nature of products is on purchasing, desires, and self-fulfillment. Drawing on symbolic interactionism, we argue that people’s association with products has some basis in the impression management of their identity. For this to occur, there must be some cultural consensus about the way that products modify identities. Drawing on affect control theory’s (ACT) methodology and equations, we measure the goodness, powerfulness, and activeness of several products, identities, and the associated product-modified identities to explore how products function as affective modifiers of identities. We find consistent effects across several types of technology products, whereby products pull the modified identity in the direction of the products’ affective qualities. Support is established for the ACT equations that predict how traits modify identities as also having utility for predicting how products modify identities. This suggests that the opening questions can be answered empirically by measuring cultural-specific sentiments of the identity and the product and by developing equations to predict the identity modification process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Robert Ezra Park and George Herbert Mead were both pragmatists, they became the progenitors of two alternative versions of interactionism. Mead developed his version on the basis of his principle of “sociality,” which subsequently became known as “symbolic interactionism.” Conversely, Park developed his opposing version later labeled “radical interactionism,” on the basis of the principle of “dominance.” To solve this mystery behind their development of divergent forms of interactionism, I examined their lives from a “socio-biographical” approach. This entailed my comparing the critical, formative social experiences that they had undergone from their early childhoods to the end of their academic careers. My comparisons uncovered some important similarities in their critical formative social experiences shedding light on why they became career-long pragmatists. Despite the significant overlaps found in their socio-biographies, however, crucial differences also surfaced that lead to their development of opposing forms of interactionism. The dissimilar critical formative social experiences that were found sprang from the starkly different paths that they followed toward becoming tenured, full professors at the University of Chicago. To oversimplify, Park followed a much more zigzagged, bumpier, and obstacle-ridden path than Mead to reach this destination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Realizing narratives render projected futures knowable as real. Projected futures are intrinsic to forming identity and informing motives. Endtime is a future situated at a critical rupture, an ‘end’ of a world as we know it within a culturally expected duration. Some prophetic versions provide realizing narratives of endtime as a context for identity that combines expectation and emotion into powerful motivational accounts for believers. Such religious narratives may suggest different futures for believers and non-believers. A pragmatic narrative illustrated by backcasting from preferred futures to present actions suggests that a normative task for contemporary selves is choosing among realizing narratives. A pragmatic turn offers criteria for making future-implicating choices and fashioning a cosmopolitan identity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]