:Constructing Complexity: Symbolic Interaction and Social Forms, Edited by Dan E. Miller , Michael A. Katovich and Stanley L. Saxton . Greenwich, CT: JAI, 1997. 291 pp. $78.50 (cloth) (40% discount for individual orders).

2000 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. Maines
Keyword(s):  
Symbolic Interaction ◽  
Social Forms

The Thematic Lens

2020 ◽  
pp. 88-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas DeGloma ◽  
Max Papadantonakis
Keyword(s):  
Symbolic Interaction ◽  
Great Promise ◽  
Theory Construction ◽  
Empirical Inquiry ◽  
Social Forms ◽  
Cultural Codes ◽  
Narrative Structures ◽  
Patterned Structures ◽  
Formal Properties ◽  
Ethnographic Analysis

This chapter outlines a comparative framework for ethnographic analysis that combines contributions from formal sociology, symbolic interaction, and the strong program in cultural sociology. Building on the methodological perspective that Eviatar Zerubavel has termed “social pattern analysis,” the authors show how underlying formal properties, including patterns of social interaction, foundational narrative structures, and formulaic modes of performance, tie otherwise quite disparate cases together. Moreover, actors in different contexts merge these social forms with widespread cultural codes, resulting in patterned structures of meaning. Otherwise different cases thus emerge as variant manifestations of a common social theme. Using such social themes as analytic lenses offers great promise for theory construction and serves as a guide for expanding empirical inquiry to a greater range of contexts and cases. Drawing on research pertaining to various topics, the chapter shows how using a thematic lens provides a compelling foundation for comparative multicase analysis while honing the interpretive and descriptive strengths traditionally associated with ethnography on the underlying properties and processes that tie such cases together.

Cultivating Intimacy

2009 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Bielo
Keyword(s):  
Social Practice ◽  
Symbolic Interaction ◽  
Bible Study ◽  
Relational Spirituality ◽  
Restoration Movement ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Study Experience ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
American Evangelicalism

In this article I contribute to the sociology and anthropology of American Evangelicalism by examining the discourse of group Bible study. Every week millions of Christians in the U.S. meet for group study, and in doing so, actively negotiate the categories of meaning central to their faith. Yet, this crucial practice has received scant attention from scholars. This study is grounded in theories of social practice and symbolic interaction, where cultural life is understood through its vital institutions, and institutions are treated as inter-subjective accomplishments. I employ the concept of ‘interactive frames’ to define how Evangelicals understand the Bible study experience. Ultimately, I argue that the predominant interactive frame for Evangelicals is that of cultivating intimacy, which directly reflects the type of personalized, relational spirituality characteristic of their faith. This, in turn, has serious consequences for how Bible reading and interpretation are performed in groups. I use a case study approach, providing close ethnographic analyses of a mixed-gender group from a Restoration Movement congregation.

Changes in Perceptions of Filipino Immigrants about Themselves and of Americans Before and After Coming to the United States

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gremil Alessandro Naz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Symbolic Interaction ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Appraisal Theory ◽  
American Values ◽  
The Us ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Symbolic Interaction Theory ◽  
Filipino Immigrants

<p>This paper examines the changes in Filipino immigrants’ perceptions about themselves and of Americans before and after coming to the United States. Filipinos have a general perception of themselves as an ethnic group. They also have perceptions about Americans whose media products regularly reach the Philippines. Eleven Filipinos who have permanently migrated to the US were interviewed about their perceptions of Filipinos and Americans. Before coming to the US, they saw themselves as hardworking, family-oriented, poor, shy, corrupt, proud, adaptable, fatalistic, humble, adventurous, persevering, gossipmonger, and happy. They described Americans as rich, arrogant, educated, workaholic, proud, powerful, spoiled, helpful, boastful, materialistic, individualistic, talented, domineering, friendly, accommodating, helpful, clean, and kind. Most of the respondents changed their perceptions of Filipinos and of Americans after coming to the US. They now view Filipinos as having acquired American values or “Americanized.” On the other hand, they stopped perceiving Americans as a homogenous group possessing the same values after they got into direct contact with them. The findings validate social perception and appraisal theory, and symbolic interaction theory.</p>

Features of support of agriculture (the case of the Tyumen Region)

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-48
Author(s):  
Aleksandra G. Balakhnina ◽  
Gulnara F. Romashkina
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Federal Budget ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
State Support ◽  
Budget Planning ◽  
Social Forms ◽  
Regional Budget ◽  
State Programs

This article systematizes the legal framework, forms, and volumes of support for agriculture from the federal budget of Russia and the regional budget (on the example of the Tyumen Region). The authors have performed a detailed analysis of the directions of such support for 2016-2019. The historical, economic and social features of the relationship between the state and agriculture are shown. State support for agriculture is objectively necessary, and competent budget planning makes it possible to develop. However, the dominance of direct forms of spending support does not stimulate cost-effective and innovative activities, which in the future can bring the industry to a competitive level. There is very little and irregular support for social forms, the development of farming and other forms of private farming in rural areas. The authors conclude that the policy of state support is sufficiently provided by legislative acts, resolutions and state programs. Many programs are updated, and new versions are adopted even before the previous ones expire. Such strong volatility hurts strategic projects and agricultural initiatives. Less expensive forms of activity-mediation and trade turn profitable. Living conditions in the villages significantly stay behind in quality and opportunities, which leads to the human capital leaving rural areas. The authors propose to pay more attention to the development of indirect forms of support, to stimulate economic activity and small businesses.

150 Years of Das Kapital and No End in Sight. Unsystematic Remarks on a Never-Ending Story

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 23-46
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Formal Structure ◽  
Monetary Theory ◽  
Economic Crises ◽  
General Introduction ◽  
The Third ◽  
Social Forms ◽  
Adequate Understanding ◽  
Theory Of Value ◽  
The Masses

Michael Heinrich, one of the leading Marx scholars, provides a general introduction into Das Kapital with emphasis on the latest interpretations of it. The circumstances surrounding its writing and publication are shown to have interfered with an adequate appreciation of it. The formal structure and organization of the first volume are obstacles to readers and demand much from their education and intellect. The article summarizes the basic trajectories of Marx’s criticisms of political economy, including the critique of naturalizing social forms arising under capitalism and Marx’s original monetary theory of value. The author disentangles Marx’s Das Kapital from views mistakenly ascribed to it, such as the idea that value is determined solely by labor and the prediction of pauperization of the masses. First, Marx’s theory of value goes well beyond explaining prices under capitalism. Second, his main prophecy concerned the inevitable growth of inequality between the masters of capital and the employed classes and did not forecast impoverishment. The paper also points out that the sequence of publication of different volumes of Das Kapital caused lacunae in interpreting Marx’s oeuvre. For instance Engels’ efforts made the third volume more accessible to readers but also obscured the overall pattern of Marx’s thinking. the article shows that Das Kapital was a dynamic and fluctuating project to such an extent that Marx himself several times revisited his views of the causes of economic crises and falling profits and also intended to deal extensively with ecological issues. Reaching an adequate understanding of the theory contained in Das Kapital cannot depend on the manuscripts of those volumes alone. Marx’s notebooks, which have only recently published, are an indispensable aid to understanding it.

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