Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method

Introduction

“Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method” appeared in 1969 and collects essays written over three decades, opened by a long new essay, “The Methodological Position of Symbolic Interactionism”. Blumer begins with the three premises that became the standard summary of the approach: human beings act towards things on the basis of the meanings the things have for them; the meaning of such things arises out of social interaction; and meanings are handled in, and modified through, an interpretive process used by the person dealing with them. From these he derives, drawing on Mead, an image of society as people fitting their lines of action together and of the self as an object towards which a person can act. The methodological part argues that the empirical social world must be respected: research should proceed by “exploration”, getting close to the people studied, and by “inspection”, testing concepts against that world, instead of starting from fixed variables and hypotheses. Further essays deal with Mead, with sensitising concepts and with the critique of variable analysis. The book became the reference text of symbolic interactionism, and its reading of Mead has been debated ever since.

Connections

Builds on

• Mind, Self, and Society1934 · George Herbert Mead

More works by Herbert Blumer

• 1939An Appraisal of Thomas and Znaniecki’s “The Polish Peasant in Europe and America”