Symbolic Interactionism

doi:10.1017/9781316677445.012

11 - Symbolic Interactionism

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 December 2020

Lawrence T. Nichols

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Peter Kivisto

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Peter Kivisto: Affiliation:
Augustana College, Illinois

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Summary

The chapter examines the influential perspective of symbolic interactionism with regard to its defining assumptions, its historical emergence, and its present status, both in the United States and internationally. The discussion covers debates among interactionists regarding theory and methodology, and it also considers intellectual movements strongly influenced by interactionism, especially identity theory, labeling theory, dramaturgy, and constructionism.

Lawrence T. Nichols is a former professor of sociology, recently retired from West Virginia University. He continues to do research and to publish on sociological theory, the construction of social problems, and the history and sociology of social science. Dr. Nichols also edits The American Sociologist, a quarterly journal with an international readership.

Keywords

Constructionism dramaturgy identity labeling pragmatism symbolic interactionism

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Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Handbook of Social Theory , pp. 205 - 225

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316677445.012 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2020

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