Studies in Symbolic Interaction – serie

Carl J. Couch was a founding member of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction and a driving force of the Iowa School of Symbolic Interaction. The essays in this collection are written to honour his life and his life's work.

This 21st volume in the series discusses a variety of topics in the field of symbolic interaction. It is divided into three parts, which address: remembering Anselm Strauss; the pragmatic heritage; and, reading self, media and culture.

The essays in this annual series consist of original research and theory within the general sociological perspective known as Symbolic Interactionism. International in scope, this series draws upon the work of interpretive students of cultural studies, ethnographers, phenomenologists, ethnomethodologists, critical, standpoint and feminist theorists, as well as traditional symbolic interactionists. The emphasis is on new thought and research which bridge links to an emergent critical theory of self, language, the media, socialization, interaction, social relationships, and race, class, and gender.

Studies in Symbolic Interaction (SSI) is an ISI listed serial that locates current symbolic interactionist thought and provides contemporary readings of social situations. The papers are longer than the average journal article allowing more scope for expansion and development. To reflect the wide range of perspectives in symbolic interactionism, SSI draws on many interpretative resources including:Post-structuralism Reconstructivism Performativity Critical race theory Feminist theory Posthumanism Materials theory Post-colonialism Affective theories Queer theory

This volume examines the concept of performance in ethnographic studies, with a special focus on the issues surrounding the performances of race, and cultural and environmental identities. A special partial section honours the contributions of David R. Maines to the field of communication studies. The concluding section considers new theoretical developments in interaction theory, including a re-examination of the spectatorial gaze in film and literary approaches to the imagined past.

This volume emphasizes interpretive interactionist work on race, media, culture and identity. Experimental, autoethnographic performance texts are privileged, as are recent theoretical developments in symbolic interaction theory involving critical humanism, pragmatic theories of power and the layered bureaucracy. It also presents essays on the New Iowa School, the work of Gideon. S. Joberg, cultural studies and symbolic interactionism, including the work of Norman Denzin.

The first part of this collection of essays is devoted to the work of Peter Hall in communications and sociological inquiries. It emphasises developments in interactionist theory, as well as examples of post-modern ethnograohy and performance texts on border crossings and performances.

Volume 27 of "Studies in Symbolic Interaction" emphasizes new developments in interactional theory and practice, as well as examples of post-modern ethnography and performance texts focused on border crossings and border performances. The volume also presents essays honoring Laurel Richardsons contributions to Symbolic Interaction and Communications, as well as the inaugural address in the "Peter M. Hall Lecture Series".

Volume 28 of "Studies in Symbolic Interaction" emphasizes new developments in interactional theory and practice, as well as examples of post-modern ethnography and performance texts focused on border crossings and border performances. The volume also presents essays honoring Carolyn Ellis' contributions to 'Symbolic Interaction and Communications', as well as the annual address in the "Peter M Hall Lecture" series.

Volume 29 of "Studies in Symbolic Interaction" honors Ron Pelias' contributions to symbolic interaction and performance studies. The work of Patricia Ticineto Clough is also honored. New theoretical developments in the areas of race, identity, politics and authenticity are presented, as are performance essays interrogating mental health care, and the representations of gender and sexuality in the popular HBO series, "Sex in the City". It honors the work of Ron Pelias and Patricia Ticineto Clough and features a performance essay that discusses representations of gender and ethnicity in HBO's "Sex and the City".

This vibrant volume is a refreshing piece of work full of cutting-edge contributions on popular music and interaction, with seminal essays on music and identity, the spaces of musical interaction (subcultures, scenes, communities), and music in and as interaction. It explores the positive impact popular music has on the field of symbolic interaction and how it helps us to revitalize and reposition existing concepts. The editors and authors of this volume are themselves researchers and writers in the area of popular music and major players in the bright future of symbolic interaction. They present a creative mix of exciting articles including 'Grandmamma, What Great Ears You Have!', 'Digging a River Downstream', 'Driving to the beat of one's own hum' and 'Brutal Belonging in Melbourne's Grindcore Scene'. Genres discussed range from country, jazz and the virtuoso to latino, grindcore and extreme metal. This volume features 7 new interpretive works focused on cross-generational musical interaction, becoming "Yellow", race in the South in the 1920s, friendship, managing emotion in sport families, futureless pasts, and G. H. Mead's theory of social becoming.

Volume 36 of "Studies in Symbolic Interaction" is solely devoted to the "Blue-Ribbon Papers". Nine papers are published in which hotly-contested issues are raised that, even if only resolved partially, could permanently change the future direction of interactional thought. Among the questions addressed are: whether there ever existed a genuine sociological school of thought based on "interactionsim" at the University Chicago, whether Herbert Blumer misinterpreted the major thrust of George Herbert Mead's thought, whether conventional or radical interactionism is the most insightful perspective from which to examine crucial life decisions that are conflict-ridden, whether George Herbert Mead's and George Santayana's perspectives converged with or diverged from one another's and with radical interactionism, whether language develops primarily from the inside out or from the outside in, whether personal economics is mainly responsible for self esteem and the over-all functioning of the self in everyday life, and whether filming constitutes a method of recording data that traditional ethnographers should include in their tool box?

This 7th volume in the series discusses a variety of topics in the field of symbolic interaction.

This 16th volume in the series discusses a variety of topics in the field of symbolic interaction; these topics include extending interaction theory and new empirical and theoretical inquiries.

This 18th volume in the series discusses a variety of topics in the field of symbolic interaction.

This 19th volume in the series discusses a variety of topics in the field of symbolic interaction.

Volume 37 in the bi-annual series "Studies in Symbolic Interaction" is divided into three distinct parts: Part One, Theoretical Openings, focuses on new theoretical work in the interactionist tradition by leading interdisciplinary scholars. It examines the mesodomain of welfare reform through re-negotiating the order of economic inequality, provides a grounded fractal analysis into the medicalization of homelessness and the sociology of the self, and looks at the labeling of immigrant men as criminals. In Part Two, Studies in Social Construction, focus shifts to issues of gender, ethnicity, illness and the urban situation including articles on the social constructions of the non-prejudiced white self, women's interaction with romantic comedies and the impact on their relationship, and engaging cultural narratives of the ethnic restaurant. The third and final part, Autoethnographic Interventions, turns inward to autoethnographic reflections on identity, technology, family, work and self including contributions on the digital evolution of an American identity and nursing's moral imperative as the flexible professional and the discourse of unexpected evidence.

"Volume 38 of Studies in Symbolic Interaction" is devoted exclusively to the "Blue Ribbon Papers Series", which is under the intellectual leadership of Lonnie Athens. In this issue, Athens presents the autobiographies of scholars who have made significant contributions to symbolic interactionist approach over the 20th and 21st centuries, including David Altheide, Paul Atkinson, Kathy Chamaraz, Adele Clarke, Gary Cook, Carolyn Ellis, Martyn Hammersley, John Johnson, Joseph Kotarba, and Laurel Richardson. The contributors were all asked to address the question of how they got into their particular fields of study and later became interactionist? They were also prodded to reveal "who is the person behind the professional mask" by describing why and how they changed over the intellectual journeys that they took in becoming some of the best known and well-respected advocates of the symbolic-interactionist's approach in America and Great Britain. These autobiographic reflections and revelations not only shatter the popular stereotype of academics, but also the stereotype of scholars who subscribe to viewpoint of symbolic interactionism.

Part I, "Theoretical Openings," of Volume 39 of Studies in Symbolic Interaction contains outstanding contributions by leading interactionists on welfare reform, history, biography and memory. The three chapters in Part II, "Studies in Social Construction," interrogate the complexities of social interaction, interpersonal and professional identity, and the cinematic representation of alcoholism. Part III takes up important interpretive interventions on the topics of imagination and intimate deception in everyday life.

To mark 40 volumes of Studies in Symbolic Interaction, this volume includes a special introduction from Series Editor, Norman K. Denzin. This 40th volume advances critical discourse on several fronts at the same time, including a report from the First Contemporary Ethnography Across the Disciplines hui, Waikato, New Zealand; New Empirical Studies by D. Coates, J. Johnson, D. Altheide, C. J. Schneider and D. Trotter, R. J. Berger, C. Corroto, J. Flad, and R. Quinney, and B. Jarrett (respectively): new religious movements, the California School of Symbolic Interaction, Terrorism and the National Security University, the 2011 Vancouver Riot, The Terrains of Medical Diagnosis and Treatment, and mediation processes. In a separate section to highlight the diverse and challenging aspects of symbolic interactionism; Ryan Turner asks if animals have selves? Michael Katovich and Robert Young and Carol Thompson use Turners article as a springboard for insightful commentary on the selves of other animals and the selves of humans.

This issue focuses on "radical interactionism," which recent emergence as an alternative perspective to conventional symbolic interactionism has sparked fierce debate in both North America and Europe. Lonnie Athens discusses the four fundamental differences between radical and conventional symbolic interactionism. The prominent scholars compare the relative insights offered not only between radical interactionism and symbolic interactionism, but between radical interactionism and feminism, dramaturgy, critical studies, and neo-pragmatism. Without exception, they found the radical interactionism revealed new and formidable insights that improved our general understanding of human group life and critical problems that arise during it. While some contributors believe that radical interactionism marks the development of a new and more vibrant form of interactionism which in due time will replace its much older and more conservative cousin, others believe that it only signals the need for traditional interactionists to finally start making some much-needed modifications in symbolic interactionism if they wish it to remain a viable sociological perspective in the 21st century.

This volume addresses the perceived gap between symbolic interaction and ethnomusicological approaches to the study of music. It seeks to bring the fields closer by highlighting some of the complementary theoretical constructs of phenomenology and symbolic interaction as they relate to music studies. The papers, presented at the 2012 Couch-Stone Symposium, work toward this reconciliation by applying the lens of symbolic interaction to various musical genres, from traditional Inuit music to jazz to hip-hop, reflecting a sensitivity to their various topics as both artistic achievement and social activity. The authors' work in multiple disciplines (Sociology, Ethnomusicology, and Communication Studies), along with their own sharing of ideas in this project, nurtures the opportunity to bring these studies into a full interdisciplinary conversation. It is the hope of the authors that we can not only open a deepened conversation between scholars in different fields, but also integrate concepts from symbolic interactionism and ethnomusicology as they continue to address the complexity of meaning in varying musical contexts.

The new social media build on and further complicate all of the issues and processes of symbolic interaction. This volume builds on and expands the existing symbolic interactionist perspective to include the study of social interaction made possible by the use of new social media. This special issue demonstrates the interface between willful social interaction and structured technological features - how social media are defined by social interactions, as well as how social interactions are dictated by the use of social media.

The papers in this volume were presented in at the third conference of the European Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction (SSSI). The theme of the 2012 conference was "Conflict, Cooperation and Transformation in Everyday Life." The fifteen papers presented across this volume and volume 45 cover a diverse range of topics, which are divided into two main categories: 'Reflections on Methods' and 'Conflict and Cooperation', this volume focuses on the former. The central issue of the first four papers is how we navigate our emotional, analytical and political selves in the social worlds that we study. How do we relate to those we observe and interview? How do we deal with issues of power, suffering and politics? The following three papers provide a critical analysis of Geertz' 'Thick Description', perspectives on obesity in modern society and an analysis of the relationship between police officers and licensed marijuana coffeeshop owners in Rotterdam. Contributing authors to this volume and the next come from Belgium, Canada, Sweden, The US, The Netherlands and Germany, suggesting the thriving diversity of European SSSI in terms of its research themes and methods.

The papers in this volume were presented at the third conference of the European Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction (SSSI). The theme of the 2012 conference was "Conflict, Cooperation and Transformation in Everyday Life". The fifteen papers presented across this volume and volume 45 cover a diverse range of topics, which are divided into two main categories: 'Reflections on Methods' and (interactions of) 'Conflict and Cooperation', this volume focuses on the latter.The papers in this volume present a wide variety of qualitative methods and themes, such as sex-work in Poland, urban public places in the Netherlands, dancing during lunch break in Sweden, self-change in Papua New Guinea, immigration in Malta and the body online.Contributing authors to this volume and the previous come from Belgium, Canada, Sweden, The US, The Netherlands, and Germany, suggesting the thriving diversity of European SSSI in terms of its research themes and methods.

The charge that symbolic interactionism (SI) is impaired by an astructural bias orbits around a number of sociology's core concerns: structure and agency, methodological individualism and methodological holism, the micro-macro link, the proper procedures to conduct research and when to state and how to test hypotheses and, whether interactionism can address structural concerns such as class, race, gender, power, and oppression. The Astructural Bias: Myth or Reality constitutes a collection of outstanding essays by scholars who address the concern of an astructural bias. Chapters explore the nature of social structure and SI's effectiveness in using the concept. This volume is beneficial for contemporary interactionists and their critics, social theorists, and all students of sociology who are interested in assessing the ability of SI to fully address the grave social circumstances and social problems of an increasingly precarious and dangerous world.

Participants from Couch-Stone Symposium 2014 have transformed their presentations into elegant papers for this collection. Chapters fall into three categorical themes, largely reflecting their position in the symposium but, more importantly, reflecting a natural progression in scope of symbolic interactionist work in music: moving from observations of the individual to observation of organizations to interdisciplinary observations of music from scholars in related disciplines.

In this new volume of Studies in Symbolic Interaction Carl J. Couch’s (1925-1994) memoir The Romance of Discovery, which has lain unpublished for thirty years, is published in full for the first time. Couch, one of the co-founders of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction, reflects on his work that influenced a generation of scholars and created a novel perspective known as the new Iowa School of Symbolic Interaction. His memoir describes the joy of establishing synergetic connections and the pain of the political struggles associated with the establishment of this school of thought. It offers a frank, proud yet humble, unapologetic description of a scholar’s journey, from a successful research to a founder of a school of thought. It provides a readable and valuable ‘moral tale’ of how research is not only a social act, but charged with political and conflictual dynamics as well.Edited and set in context by Michael A. Katovich, the volume also includes Couch’s unpublished essay ‘Forms of Social Processes’ which sets out a theory of his methodology. Friends and colleagues offer their personal reflections on their relationship with Couch, and the volume concludes with a unique selected bibliography on new Iowa School works.

Oppression and resistance dialectically envelop everyday life, for both the privileged and the oppressed. The disenfranchised live under regimes in which repression ranges from brutal to institutionally subtle. The privileged socially reproduce their rule through ideology that justifies and policy that institutionalizes subjugation. However, rejecting depression, detachment, and disaffection that emerges from surviving ruling-class regimes, many previously dispirited, instead, choose defiance. They engage in subjectivity struggles by crafting critical consciousness, refusing to be dupes to ideology that represents them as inferior. They undertake social struggles demanding policy that dismantles institutional discrimination and that enhances opportunities for learning and achievement. The exploited, as best as they can in regimes of ruling class and white male supremacy, reconstruct their selves and, it is hoped, transform society. The qualitative studies that comprise this edited collection, present a structure-and-agency perspective, broadly defined, that constitutes the best sociological lens through which to understand oppression and resistance. Contributors interrogate various aspects of oppression and resistance, from the personal to the institutional, exploring situations in which the structure of oppression was insurmountable and illustrating cases in which agency was able to transform either individual or group identity.