Georg Simmel: An Introduction.

This article introduces several essays and writings of Georg Simmel. The work of Simmel has often been depicted in English-speaking circles as a contribution to formal sociology. This view of Simmel as the sociologist who laid the foundations for the analysis of social forms such as the dyad, triad and mass, the miser, stranger and the poor, competition, sociability and conflict, has long been the conventional wisdom which has dominated the Anglo-Saxon reception of his work. With some notable exceptions, sociological theory textbooks in Great Britain and the U.S. often give only a passing reference to his writings or treat his work merely as a preparatory foundation for conflict theory, exchange theory and interactionism. The reception of Simmel's work in post-war Germany was initially dominated by U.S. sociology with the key influence being Talcott Parson's estimation of what he regarded as the classic figures of sociology. It was only when conflict theory and exchange theory were developed as an alternative to functionalism in the late 1950s and 1960s that Simmel's sociology was brought back to Germany from the U.S. This prepared the way for the more nuanced reception of his work in Germany in the late 1970s and 1980s.