Sociologies of Interaction / Edition 1

by Alex Dennis, Rob Philburn, Greg Smith

Overview

Social interaction lies at the heart of our everyday experience. We make our way down the street and avoid crashing into others, take our place in the supermarket queue, take care in the way we talk about others in conversation, acknowledge the social status of people we meet, and enjoy leisurely pursuits in the company of friends and like-minded others. All these things are fundamental parts of human sociality that can be discovered and understood through ‘sociologies of interaction’.

This book provides an invaluable introduction to the theoretical foundations and practical applications of interactionist approaches to everyday life. Beginning with an overview of three core traditions - symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, along with Goffman’s work on the interaction order - the text moves on to examine in detail topics such as leisure, work, health and illness, deviance, class, status and power, education, ethnic relations and gender. Highlighting a range of empirical studies, the book shows how sociologies of interaction have the capacity to reframe and make us rethink conventional social science topics.

This illuminating book will be of interest to undergraduates across the social sciences, particularly in sociology, social psychology and communication studies, as well as those who have an interest in understanding the interactional underpinnings of everyday life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780745646060
Publisher:	Polity Press
Publication date:	10/14/2013
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Alex Dennis is lecturer in sociology at Sheffield University.

Rob Philburn is lecturer in sociology at the University of Salford.

Greg Smith is Professor of Sociology at the University of Salford.

Table of Contents

Introduction page 1

1 Pragmatism and Symbolic Interactionism 8

2 Phenomenology and Ethnomethodology 35

3 Conversation Analysis and the Interaction Order 63

4 Status and Power 98

5 The Body, Health and Illness 121

6 Work 142

7 Deviance 162

8 Leisure 188

Conclusion 208

Notes 219

References 221

Index 237