Essays in Interactionist Sociology
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The Philosophy of American Pragmatism provided the foundation for sociologically-oriented social psychology called Symbolic Interaction. This perspective grew out of the work of Charles S. Peirce, William James, Charles H. Cooley, John Dewey, George H. Mead and Herbert Blumer. The perspective is unique because it sees Homo Sapiens as capable of engaging in symbolic communication which gives communicators, individually and jointly, the ability to construct, transform, and transcend reality. Beings capable of symbolic communication can break beyond time, place, culture, language, and history. It also constitutes a radical departure from all prior systems of psychology because it rejects instincts, needs, or drives as sources of motivation. Instead, it advances a social-behavioral approach in which the act is the unit of existence and individuals simply act. The question is: how individuals, within a given situation, indicate to themselves, what direction or line of individual or joint action they will take. Given symbolic facility, individuals can dialogue with themselves and others, and respond to any aspect of a situation that furthers their agenda. Meaning and value are not inherent in a situation but arise from the response(s) made to it. Although people can indicate to themselves and others how they will act, there is no guarantee that the quality of the self-indication serves their own interest. Others may engineer a situation in order to deceive an actor into acting against their own best interest. Do investigators have any obligation to help individuals improve the quality of their indications, or reveal and prevent the engineering of situations? The standard answer is: investigation focuses on understanding and explanation.
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About the Book
Essays in Interactionist Sociology contains a selection of contributions, spanning five decades, that advance the theory, organization, and research of the interactionist tradition.
Harvey A. Farberman, professor emeritus of social welfare policy at Stony Brook University, wrote the fourteen essays, twelve of which were published in academic journals or annuals and two that are original to this volume.
Each one focuses on some aspect of the theory of symbolic interactionist sociology, the professional and organizational development of the interactionist perspective, or empirical studies inspired by the perspective.
The author highlights the emergence of the perspective from the philosophy of American Pragmatism, paying particular attention to the contributions of Charles Sanders Peirce and William James. He also examines what may be called refractions of the perspective.
The latter part of the book contains four studies. Personalization in Lower Class Consumer Interactions; A Criminogenic Market Structure: The Automobile Industry; Fantasy in Everyday Life: The Intersection of Social Psychology and Political Economy; and Family Caregiving to Elders in New York State.
In many ways, the essays in this volume contribute to and reflect the development of interactionist sociology as it grew from an American innovation to a robust, international social science discipline.
About the Author
Harvey A. Farberman is professor emeritus of social welfare policy at Stony Brook University. He was a co-founder and president of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction, served as editor of the journal Symbolic Interaction, won the SSSI Distinguished Service Award, and was named an Annual Distinguished Lecturer. He also received the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award.