I' MacroStructural vs' MicroInteractionist Sociological Theory

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I. Macro/Structural vs. Micro/Interactionist
Sociological Theory II. The Discovery of the
Invisible World What do CM mean by this? III.
Georg Simmel The Everyday and Social Structure
IV. Cooley, Mead and Blumer Symbolic
Interactionism
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• Macro vs. Micro
• Classical sociological theory was mainly macro
  in orientation
• A strategy of theory building based mainly on
  structuralist assumptions
• Micro approaches shift attention to individuals
  and small scale interaction
• A strategy of theory building based on the
  analysis of individual behavior

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• Micro Sociological Theory
• primarily a U.S. phenomenon
• insists on the active role of individuals in
  constructing their social world (although various
  versions of what this means)
• rejects any view that sees individuals as pawns
  of social structures
• has to be judged on its scientific merits, not
  normative ones

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Chapter 9 The Discovery of the Invisible World
What does this chapter title mean?
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Georg Simmel (1858-1918)
Simmels sensitivity ...resulted in a striking
insightThe social institutions that make up the
relatively permanent heritage of society--the
state, the family, the economy, the class
structure, are only an extended version of the
everyday interactions of men and women meeting on
the street, in stores and offices, or at a party.
Thus, by studying the formal structure of the
more fleeting encounters, we reach the essence of
our invisible society. Collins and Makowsky, p.
149
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Georg Simmel
Simmel was the first to remove sociability from
the realm of the taken-for-granted and to analyze
it as part of the social structure. Sociability,
he pointed out, is a little world within the
world, with laws of its own.... Collins and
Makowsky, p. 150
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Charles Horton Cooley(1864-1929)

• the concept of the looking-glass self
• society as the mental image we hold of it
• useful further detail at the Dead Sociologists
  website

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George Herbert Mead (1863-1931)

• Main inspiration for symbolic interactionism
• The self as fundamentally socialarises from and
  is sustained through social interaction
• Play, games and the generalized other

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George Herbert Mead (1863-1931)

• An implicit critique of positivism (p. 165)
• Interpreted and popularized by Herbert Blumer

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Herbert Blumer Symbolic Interactionism

• a student of George Herbert Meads at the
  University of Chicago
• Coined SI term in 1937 article

Society as Symbolic Interaction
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• Blumers Three Premises of SI
• Society is made up of individuals who have selves
• Through meaning-laden self-indications,
  individuals construct their actions
• Collective action consists of the aligning of
  individual actions
• Human society is seen as consisting of acting
  people, and the life of the society is to be seen
  as consisting of their actions.

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Symbolic Interactionism

• a micro sociological perspective
• tends to be strongly anti-positivist
• tends to emphasize description over explanation
• sees itself in opposition to macro theories
  espousing social determinism
• seeks to develop an understanding of society
  from the bottom up