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Symbolic Interactionism,

Dramaturgy, and Ethnomethdology

Symbolic Interactionism is often identified as one of three major

school of sociological theory, along with Conflict Theory (Weber/Marx), and Structural Functionalism (Durkheim/Merton).

Common to think of Conflict Theory and

Structural-Functionalism as competing theories

about the macro level, and to associate SI with

micro level interactions.

In reality, conflict and S-F can be used to analyzed social processes at the meso and micro levels, as much as they also apply to the macro level.

Similarly, SI can be used to analyze that ways that groups develop their identities and interact with other groups (meso), and even the ways that states negotiate the meaning of the interactions with other states (macro).

Dramaturgy (Goffman) and Ethnomethodology (Garfinkel) are offshoots of SI.

But SI also stood against the reductionist tendencies of behaviorism (reducing human behavior to mere impulse reaction to stimulus) and the over-determinism of structural-functionalism by according agency (though not freedom) to the actor.

Basics of Mead's perspective:

  • The social precedes the mind
  • Unit of analysis is the act

IMPULSES that come from others or are extended to others are called GESTURES, and include talking, pushing, punching, hugging, waving, etc.

Gestures that invoke shared meanings are called SIGNIFICANT SYMBOLS, the greatest of which is language.

PERCEPTIONS require the work of the MIND, which is treated by Mead as a process, not an organ. While all creatures engage in the process of the mind, only developed humans engages in the process of the SELF, which is a mind that is capable of perceiving itself as both subject and object. Only the self is capable of developing meanings that are shared (SIGNIFICANT SYMBOLS).

Child Development:

  • Play Stage: Playing a discrete role
  • Game Stage: Understanding all roles. This yields the GENERALIZED OTHER.

The I, the me

  • The I is the subject, acting and perceiving
  • The me is the object, acted upon, perceived, and perceiving itself through the eyes of others

Society: The web of interactions that precede the mind and the self.

3 key principles of SI, according to Blumer:

1. Humans act towards things on the basis of meaning

2. These meanings derive from social interactions

3. Meanings are framed within an interpretive process

Human actors are always engaged INTERPRETATION. Meaning is never fixed, but rather under negotiation.

HUMAN SOCIETY consists of humans engaged in action, individually and collectively.

SOCIAL INTERACTION forms human conduct. It creates the meanings that are the basis of action.

OBJECTS are aspects of the world that are meaningfully created (given meaning) through interaction.

HUMANS are inherently actors, particularly social ones. ACTION requires interpretation (assessing meaning and formulating strategy).

Most human action is stable, but even stable action requires on-going interpretation. Group life is a network/system of interpretive actions. New actions occur within the background of previous actions, institutionalized within the system.

Goffmanian DRAMATURGY: Built on the premise that social interactions are a performance, that roughly follow the rules of the theater. Key concepts...

DEFINITION OF THE SITUATION: The necessary pretext to action. Tells us what to expect and how to act. Temporary. Produced tacitly in most cases. Begins with conduct and appearance.

EXPRESSION GIVEN VS. EXPRESSION GIVEN OFF: The expression we give is what we actually do and say. The expression we give off is an additional meaning that either validates or undermines the expression given. Observers use this as a test to determine their trust in us and the meaning of our actions.

SHETLANDER: "For example, in Shetland Isleone crofter's wife, in serving native dishes to a visitor fromthe mainland of Britain, wol,ll.~ listen" with a polite smile tohis polite claims of liking what he was ~ating; at the sametime she would take note of the rapidity with which thevisitor lifted his fork or spoon to his mouth, the eagernesswith which he passed food into his mouth, and the gustoexpressed in chewing the food, using these signs as a checkon the stated feelings of the eater.

"The same woman, inorder to discover what one acquaintance (A) "actually"thought of another acquaintance (B), would wait until Bwas in the presence of A but engaged in conversation withstill another person (C). She would then covertly examinethe facial expressions of A as he regarded B in conversationwith C. Not being in conversation with B, and not beingdirectly observed by him, A would sometimes relax usualconstraints and tactful deceptions, and freely express whathe was "actually" feeling about B. This Shetlander, in short,would observe the unobserved observer."

INTERACTION: Reciprical influence of individuals upon one another's actions.

PERFORMANCE: All of the activity of a participant in a given interaction.

SOCIAL ROLE: Enactment of rights and duties attached to a status. Involves one or more parts, consistently played.

FRONT STAGE: Where these roles are played. Includes both a setting, and a "personal front" (made up of appearance and manner.

Ethnomethodology: The methods of people or the method of everyday life. The method referred to is not a research method of scientists; rather it is the method we all use to construct our lives. Ethnomethodology is the study of folkways, often by disrupting them, with an emphasis on common sense.

What do we learn from Agnes about the "common sense" regarding sex and gender?

  • Common sense says that one's sex should be the same from one time period to another, when in fact it can change.
  • Sex dichotomy is not a given fact; it requires compliance.
  • Sex is generally identified as a normal and natural characteristic.
  • Trans people may be particularly invested in the naturalness of the sex dichotomy, even as scholars point to them as evidence of the constructedness of the dichotomy.
  • Sex dichotomy is institutionalized; affirmed especially by medicine.
  • Trans people and those around them work quickly to clarify gender identity and to naturalize it.
  • Gender identity must be learned, constructed, performed and maintained.
  • Gender identity can be learned, but is harder to learn later in life.
  • Normalizing gender identity requires careful negotiation of sexuality.
  • Breasts are a key visual insignia of female identity.
  • Performing gender means highlighting some aspects of our identities while obscuring others.
  • There are legitimate reasons to not engage in social activity, such as "not in the mood," which can be used as a tool for passing.
  • Our gender peformance involves being a secret apprentice to others who have the gender we want (not just the maleness of femaleness, but the actual kind of malesness and femaleness).
  • Passing requires not identifying with the interstitial space--not being intersexed or trans but rather male or female.
  • Management devices and passing devices are also gender preformance devices.

Institutions: Politics, Language, Ideology,

Law, Religion, Etc.

Macro

Roots of Symbolic Interactionism

1. American Pragmatism: Reality is actively and socially created; meaning of objects depends on and varies with use

2. Behaviorism: Explaining human behavior in terms of physical and psychical processes

Organizations, Groups,

Categories of Identity

Meso

Micro

Self, Interactions,

Pairs, Relationships,

Conversations

Herbert Blumer (1900-1987), born in St. Louis. Studied at Missouri and then Chicago. Taught at Chicago before starting the sociology program at Berkeley. A student and then colleague of Mead's. President of ASA 1930-1935 and editor of AJS in the 40s.

Harold Garfinkel (b. 1917, Newark, NJ). Studied account at the University of Newark. Master's in Sociology from Chapel Hill; PhD from Harvard where he studied under Parsons. Began teaching at UCLA in 1954 and retired in 1987. Still emeritus at UCLA. Published Studies in Ethnomethodology in 1967.)

George Herbert Mead (1863-1931), born in South Hadley, MA. Bachelor's from Oberlin and Master's in Philosophy from Harvard. Never finished his PhD. Taught first at Michigan and then later at Chicago where he spent the rest of his career. Influential in the development of Chicago School of Sociology. Most famous as a teacher. His famous books were compiled by his students after his death. Credited with developing the basics of SI, though his student Blumer coined the term.

Erving Goffman (1922-1982), born in Alberta Canada. BA in Soc and Anth from University of Toronto. MA and PhD from Chicago (1953). Published The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life in 1959. Taught for 10 years at Berkeley and then ended his career at the University of Pennsylvania.

Act = Impulse + Perception + Manipulation + Consummation

Hunger Pang + "I am hungry and there's some mushrooms" + "This mushroom looks bad but that one looks better" + Hunger satisfied.

Generalized Other:

The mental process that says, "Within the social whole, I am expected to do this and you are expected to do that."

PREEDY: "But it was time to institute a little parade, the parade of the Ideal Preedy. By devious handlings he gave any who wanted to look a chance to see the title of his book, a Spanish translation of Homer, classic thus, but not daring, cosmopolitan too, and then gathered together his beach-wrap and bag into a neat sand-resistant pile (Methodical and Sensible Preedy), rose slowly to stretch and ease his huge frame (Big-Cat Preedy), and tossed aside his sandals (Carefree Preedy, after all).

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