1. A Radical Interactionist's Theory of Societal Change: Going beyond Park.
- Author
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Athens, Lonnie
- Subjects
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SOCIAL change , *RADICALISM , *INTERACTIONISM (Philosophy) , *SOCIAL unrest , *SOCIAL conflict - Abstract
A major blind spot in the development of a radical interactionist's perspective is the lack of an explanation of societal change, whether it be revolutionary or only reformatory in scope. Robert Park began to develop a cyclical theory of societal change, but he was unable to finish it. Nevertheless, in our development of a theory of societal change from a radical interactionist's perspective, we were able to follow up and launch this project with the valuable clues that he left behind. First, we expanded the number of phases in his cycle from three to five, so that each type of social interaction that he and Burgess identified could be incorporated under one of the different phases. Second, the cycle was refined to operate on a contingent rather than a strictly deterministic model allowing the occurrence of a truncated cycle. Next, we filled-in various missing details needed for this cycle's on going operation, such as circular reaction, social contagion, and social unrest. Fourth, we drew on his distinction between "societies" and "communities" to demarcate clear-cut starting, mid- and end points of the expanded cycle. Fifth, we replaced his dated notion of dominance with the newer and more nuanced one of domination, as well as updated his conception of the dynamics of super-ordination by incorporating the role of power within it. By improving on Park's ideas in these different ways, it was demonstrated that unlike symbolic interactionism, radical interactionism squarely addresses societal change on both the micro- and macroscopic planes. Unlike functionalist and conflict theories of social change, it stresses cooperation as much as conflagration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2021
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