Critical and Cultural Interactionism: Insights from Sociology and Criminology

Description

One of the longest standing traditions in sociology, interactionism is concerned with studying human interaction and showing how society to a large part is constituted by patterns of interaction. In spite of the work of figures such as Robert E. Park, Everett C. Hughes, Erving Goffman, Herbert Blumer, Norman K. Denzin and Gary Alan Fine, interactionism – perhaps owing to its association with the perspective of symbolic interactionism – remains something of an odd man out in mainstream sociology. This book seeks to rectify this apparent neglect by bringing together critical social theories and microsociological approaches to research, thus revealing the critical and cultural potentials in interactionism – the chapters arguing that far from being oriented towards the status quo, interactionism in fact contains a critical and cultural edge. Presenting the latest work from some of the leading figures in interactionist thought to show recent developments in the field and offer an overview of some of the most potent and prominent ideas within critical and cultural criminology, Critical and Cultural Interactionism will appeal to scholars of sociology with interests in interactionism, social theory research methods and criminology. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of contributors Preface and acknowledgements Introduction: the coming of critical and cultural interactionisms The implosion of interactionism ‘Critical’ and ‘cultural’ interactionism The ‘politics’ of interactionism About this book References Chapter 1 Misgivings about Goffman: social structure, power and politics in the work of Erving Goffman Introduction Gouldner’s misgivings about Goffman Goffman’s ‘microsociology’: what about the macro social structure? Goffman’s ‘interaction rituals’: what about power? Goffman’s ‘analytic attitude’: what about politics? Conclusion References Chapter 2 Upscaling Goffman: four principles of neostructural interactionism Introduction Interaction orders all the way up Upscaling Goffman Four principles A note on negotiation and improvisation Conclusion Notes References Chapter 3 A call to a critical interpretive interactionism Introduction Critical interactionism The performance approach Interactionist autoethnographer as performer The world as performance Race and the call to performance Hope and acts of activism Changing the world Moral criticism and taking sides Blurring interpretive genres Performance pedagogy and the sociological imagination Conclusion Notes References Chapter 4 Dramaturgical interactionism: ideas of self-presentation, impression management and the staging of social life as a catapult for critique Introduction Goffman’s dramaturgy as a metaphorical scaffold Objections to Goffman’s dramaturgy Dramaturgy as a revolt against absurdity Dramaturgy as critique/unmasking Potentials and limitations of DI Conclusion Notes References Chapter 5 Critical interactionism: a theoretical bridge for understanding complex human conditions Introduction Symbolic interactionism: historical and philosophical origins Symbolic interactionism: some central ideas Critical social theory perspective: historical and philosophical origins Critical social theory: some central ideas The sub-theory of communicative action Some areas of divergence Some areas of convergence Critical interactionism: a theoretical bridge Theoretical applications to populations identified as homeless and criminals Conclusion References Chapter 6 Pacifism, gender and symbolic interactionism Introduction The birth of theory and practice Mead and Dewey as international pacifists, 1894–1914 Chicago symbolic interactionism, the University of Chicago and World War I, 1914–1921 Mead and sociology Dewey and Chicago symbolic interactionism, 1915–1918 Scholarship on Mead and Dewey on war The female world in Chicago during and after World War I The female perspective on international pacifism before and during World War I Pacifism and symbolic interactionism post World War I, 1918–1945 Pacifism and symbolic interactionism, 1937–2018 Conclusion Notes References Chapter 7 Towards a feminist symbolic interactionism Introduction From symbolic interactionism to feminist interactionism Conclusion References Chapter 8 An invitation to ‘radical interactionism’: towards a reorientation of interactionist sociology? Introduction A maverick’s perspective The study of violence as a precursor to RI From Mead/Blumer to Park: RI versus SI Understanding domination and subjugation in everyday life The potentials and problems of RI Conclusion References Chapter 9 Symbolic interactionism and the Frankfurt School: a critical appraisal Introduction Culture, history and the rise of theory The historical nature of selfhood The new subjectivity Domination and ‘willing assent’ Colonising subjectivity Betwixt and between social structure and the unconscious Language, communication and the self The normalisation of the normative Conclusion Note References Chapter 10 Situational analysis as a critical interactionist method Introduction What is critical interactionism? What is situational analysis? Why and how is SA a critical interactionist method? Conclusions: SA as a critical interactionist method Notes References Chapter 11 Cultural criminology and its incitement for symbolic interactionism: transgression, marginalisation, resistance and media in the wider context of power and culture of late modernity Introduction Criticising deviance studies The development of cultural criminology Three foci within cultural criminology Conclusion Notes References Index