Herbert Blumer: Symbolic interactionism. Perspective and method1. The methodological position of symbolic interactionismScholarly context George Herbert Mead, John Dewey and moreThe nature of symbolic interactionismThree premises:1. Human beings act toward things on the basis ofthe meaning that the thing have for them.2. The meaning of things is derived from the social interaction that one has with ones fellows.3. These meanings are handled in and modified through an interpretative process used by the person in dealing with the things she enocunters.Nature of: the root images of social interactionism - HUMAN SOCIETY OR HUMAN GROUP LIFEHuman groups or socity consist fundamentally of action. Society exists in action structure/organization is a process of fitting together actions.- SOCIAL INTERACTIONOnes own action needs to be fitted with the actions of the other.G.H. Mead The conversation of gestures (non-symbolic interact.) The use of significant symbols (symbolic interaction)- NATURE OF OBJECTSIndividual worlds are made up of objects (physical, social, abstract). An object is anything that can be referred the meaning it has for whom it is an object. > Natural parallel to semiotic theory: connotations and private associations.- THE HUMAN BEING AS AN ACTING ORGANISMThe human being as possessing a self can be an object of its own action. The self-object emerges from social interaction with other people. The subject placing her/himself in the position of others. > Interacting with oneself. Self-interaction as making indication to oneself.Social An organism that engages in social interaction with itself by making indications to itself and responding to these indications. That is, a process of interpretation out of which action arises.- SOCIAL OF HUMAN ACTIONThe need to interpret the world in order to act. - INTERLINKAGE OF ACTIONJoint action a societal organization of conduct or different acts of diverse participants. - often repetetive and stable, yet evolving.1- The extended connection of actions make up much of human life. Systems.- Any instance of joint action arises from previous actions.Methodological principles of empirical scienceA premise of an empirically existing world that can be studied. Idealism The world of reality exists only as it is interpreted and comprehended by the individual. Exists only in human experience. An incontestable position, but:does not shift reality from the empirical world to therealm of the imaginary and conception.A solipstic position is untenable.The resistance of the empirical worldAn obdurate character that is the mark of reality.The role of empirical science to develop theory and conceptions despite the stubborness of reality.Methodology Covers the principles that underlie and guide the full process of studying the obdurate charather of the givenempirical world.1. Methodology concerns the whole scientific process not only some initial must-have.2. Each part of the scientific quest has to fit the obdurate character of the empirical world.3. The empirical world provides the ultimate answer to the questions posed.Blumer here pretty agressively attacks a solely quantitative approach to social sciences. Lifting the veils of theempirical worldBy getting close to the area and digging deep into through careful study.Through analysis of its two fundamental parts:Exploration and inspection --> Direct naturalistic examination of the empirical social world.EXPLORATION(depiction)Basically about the value of exploratory studies, with an initial broad focus that is sharpened as the inquiry proceeds. Not dependent on particular sets of techniques. The importance of seeking participants with knowledge on the area of study. Informants. The importance of letting the empirical material, lead the development of concepts and images.Goal Develop a comprehensive picture of the area of study.Descriptive information provides answers to theoretical questions. BUT, a theoretical schema is not 2a priori necessary. INSPECTION(analysis)The examination of the empirical world needs to be cast in a theoretical form. But there should be no conventional protocol, which would only serve to limitthe empirical analysis.definition () an intensive focused examination of the empirical content of whatever analytial elements are used for purposes of analysis, and the same kind of examination of the empirical nature of the relations between such elements (43).Procedure Examining analytical elements from different angles. Flexible, creative, imaginative. Operationalising is not the answer.Methodological orientationHow does one study human group life and social action?1. People act on the basis of the meaning of their objects.In order to understand the action of people, it is necessary to see the objects as they seem them. - To place oneself in the position of the individual/collective.- To identify the objects one needs a body of relevant observations.- To guard against proneness. Deliberate testing of a priori images. 2. Group life as a process in which people indicate lines of action to each other and interpret the indicatins of others.Social interaction as a formative process in its own right. Life and spheres as moving processes in which participants define and interpret each others acts. Lack of warrant for compressing the process of social interaction into a special form. The variety of forms of interction opposes such standardisation. The task of theresearcher is to explore the characteristics of the specific form of interaction.3. Social acts are constructed thorugh a process in which the actors note, interpret and assess the situations confronting them.Need to see social action in terms of the actor. The actor constructs her/his own social action. Possible by virtue of being able to interact with her/himself self-interaction.The human being is not a merely responding organism,but rather an acting organism. In order to analyze social action, one has to observe theprocess by which it is constructed.4. The complex interlinkage of acts that comprise organization, institutions and like, are moving affairs.Large societal organizations as arrangements of peoplewho are interlinked in their respective actions. Seeks explanation in the way in which participants define, interpret and meet situations at their respective points.3Conclusion Respect the nature of the empirical world and organize a methodological stance to reflect that respect (60).42. Sociological implications of the thought of George Herbert MeadClearly an inspiration for BlumerHuman group life as essential for human consciousness, the mind, the world of objects, selves, and human conduct in the form of constructed acts.The Self The human as an organism possessing a self, converts the human into an actor with a reflexive relation to the world, and an object to itself.Self-interaction with which to meet the world. Interpreting the objects of the world, not merely responding in an automatic way.The self as a process Not as a structure. Process reflexivity. Puts the human being over against her/his world, not merely in it.The Act Making indications to her/himself and interpreting these indications --> forges together a piece of action. Action as a conduct, which is constructed by the actor instead of response elicited from a preformed organization.Social interaction - Non-symbolic interaction: responding directly to gestrures and actions.- Symbolic interaction: interpret gestures (indications) and act on the basis of the interpreted meaning.Interpretation anddefinitionAscertaining the meaning of actionsConveying indications to others as to how she/he is to act.1. A formative process Human interaction as a positive shaping process in its own right. Constant interpretation (and reinterpretation). 2. Continually fittingconduct to one another 3. Symbolicinteractionism genericAble to cover the full range of the generic forms of human association. Always the same common task of constructing acts by interpreting and defining the acts of each other.Objects Objects as human constructs - as anything that can be referred to or designated.1. The nature of the object is constituted by the meaning it has for the person for whom it is an object.2. This meaning arises from how the person is prepared to act toward it.3. All objects are social products formed and tranformed by the defining process in social 5interactions.4. People are prepared toward objects on the basisof the meaning it has for them.5. One can organize ones actions toward it.Joint action (Mead: social act).The larger collective form of action that is constituted by the fitting together of the lines of behaviour of the separate participants.Fitting together by interpreting and defining each others acts. Actions within a broader social context.The essence of society Lies in an ongoing process of action.Uncertainty, contigency, transformation.Methodologically Study of action has to be made from the pov. of the actor tale the role of the actor.Society is not an established structureRather seen as people meeting their conditions of life.Still structure is important The importance of social roles, status positions, institutions, social codes, norms ().- they are important only as they enter into the process of interpretation and definition out of which joint actions are formed.4. Attitudes and the social actCulture A conception of the human group with a body/system of ways of living that predates the infant or newcomer. Must be acquired, shape their conduct and personal organization.Social structure Arrangement of social positionsRole playing People put into different roles according to situations (and positions).Blumers critique These conceptions have not been derived from the study of human association as an on-going process.The [true] nature of human associationContinuing process of interpretationTwo human beings interacting upon each other: the most fundamental form.Participants take each other into account. Interpretating identifying the maning of action. Orienting oneself, direction for ones own conduct.> Transaction Constructed in the process of its occurrence.Cultural norms, status postitions and role relationshipsare only frameworks inside of which that process goes on (116).But surely Blumer interprets theories of role-playing tostrictly? It seems like an idea of roles, does not allow for any independents processes of interpretations? 6