the beginners of social theory, Slide di Storia Del Pensiero Sociologico

Scarica the beginners of social theory e più Slide in PDF di Storia Del Pensiero Sociologico solo su Docsity! How is interaction possible? This is the main question of those perspective (i.e. ethnomethodology, symbolic interactionism and phenomenology) which are interested in the everyday life of people, the way they actually act and interact. In all of these approaches, the sociologist shares with ordinary people the capacity to understand the action of others, by making reference to a set of shared symbols and rules Herbert Blumer and symbolic interactionism l For Blumer, what is specific about human relationships is our ability to construct and share the world. l The terms symbolic interactionism mean that we do not simply react to the action of other people. Before reacting, we need to interpret it as meaningful. l The main element of society is human interaction. This implies that: a. society is a frame (and not the main cause) for social actions; b. social changes are determined by the activity of social actors (and not by some external, objective factor) Pragmatism l “Pragmatism is an approach to social theory which emphasises the direct correspondence between meaning and action. Pragmatists place a great deal of stress upon understanding the meaning of any action by looking at the consequences of that action in terms of the practical significance it has on the everyday life experiences of people. Pragmatists assume that knowledge is always incomplete, uncertain, subject to error, and that our ideas, concepts and judgements are merely symbols. Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929), for instance, argued that our central moral ideas such as justice and freedom, upon which the moral unity of society was built, were derived from face-to-face relationships in primary groups such as families, neighbourhoods and children's play groups” (BEST, p. 111). William James l His influence was great because he developed a reflexive idea of the self. According to James we are able to perceive the way other people see us and to make reference to the ideas people have of us in order to define the representation we have of ourselves. l He distinguished three types of selves: l 1. the material self: it is related to our social role and the way and the way we dress or behave; l 2. the social self: it is the output of our relations (for example: who are our friends); l 3. the spiritual self: our specific personality. Cooley l Cooley developed the idea of the looking-glass self. l The self-concept has three main parts in Cooley's analysis, all of which link the self to society: l We look at our appearance from the perspective of the other. l We attempt to imagine the judgement of the other about us. l We use the above information to develop feelings about ourselves, such as self-respect or embarrassment. Mead's chief ideas: a summary l Society is the output of cooperation, which is possible because we may understand the intentions of others and act in consequence of this; l The Self is formed by “I” (impulsive tendency of the individual) and “Me” (the incorporated other). The Self is reflexive: by stepping outside of ourselves we may see ourselves as other people do. l Mind: it is the individualized centre of the process of communication in which social interaction is characterized by the use of linguistic symbols. It is clearly linked to the linguistic behaviour of the individuals, and indeed there is no distinction between mind and language. l Act: it is a complex process, consisting of a plurality of elements (attention, reasoning, emotions etc.). Act is made possible thanks to the three foregoing processes (Mind, Self and Society) Sigmund Freud l In order to understand the self and the process by which it generates, one has to make reference to Sigmund Freud. l The self is an imprint of significant others upon the not yet formed psyche of the child. l The self is the output of four interrelated processes: projection, introjection, repression and l regression. projection, introjection, repression and regression. l Projection is commonly viewed as a form of rationalisation: an individual defend himself from unpleasant impulses by disowning them and by e attributing them to others. For example, a person who is rude may constantly accuse other people of being rude. Introjection is regarded as the process where the subject replicates behaviours or attributes of other subjects. A simple example: a person who picks up traits from their friends (e.g., a person who begins frequently exclaiming "Ridiculous!" thus imitating a friend who does so) is introjecting. Repression can be viewed as a form of `motivated forgetting', with repressed thoughts pushed deep into the unconscious mind. Any unpleasant thoughts, ideas or expressions can simply be repressed: we deny their existence. Regression is a process in which an individual reverts to former ways of behaving in order to satisfy needs. Individuals, for example, may choose to smoke when they are under pressure, in an effort to gain pleasure similar to the young child sucking at its mother's breast. Alfred Schutz l Alfred Schutz put the individual human agent at the centre of his analysis. Schutz's phenomenology assumes that all our knowledge is drawn from phenomena: that which is directly experienced by our senses. The phenomenological approach is based upon the careful description of these phenomena. Whatever lies behind phenomena, what is referred to as noumen, always remains unknowable. Phenomenologists have produced subtle analyses of how individuals create categories of thought and how reality is put together within social processes. l Scutz introduced within the field of social sciences the concept of Lebenswelt, developed by the philosopher Husserl l “For Schutz we live in the Lebenswelt or lifeworld `the world of lived experience', which is made up of the life experiences of other people and how they impact upon us as individuals. The Lebenswelt consists of physical and social objects which are experienced by us as already existing and already organised. We assume that the Lebenswelt was there before we were born; we take it for granted and suspend doubt that things might be otherwise. According to Schutz, we adopt `the natural attitude' towards the Lebenswelt. Our everyday experiences, our personal direction, social action and the many other dealings that we have with people are found within the Lebenswelt”. Schutz' conception of action l Schutz's work may be intended as a critique to Weber'sconception of ation. l First of all, according to Schutz, the four type typology of action proposed by Weber is not able to represent the complexity and multiform of social action l Schutz criticized Weber even because the German sociologist had not explained how mutual interaction is possible. How do we understand each other? And how come that we have similar perception of the world? l Schutz ansewers: thanks to the reciprocity of perspectives: “we assume that, if we changed places with the other, we would view the world as the other does.