Michael Hviid Jacobsen 
The Interactionist Imagination [PDF ebook] 
Studying Meaning, Situation and Micro-Social Order

This book outlines the history and developments of interactionist social thought through a consideration of its key figures. Arranged chronologically, each chapter illustrates the impact that individual sociologists working within an interactionism framework have had on interactionism as perspective and on the discipline of sociology as such. It presents analyses of interactionist theorists from Georg Simmel through to Herbert Bulmer and Erving Goffman and onto the more recent contributions of Arlie R. Hochschild and Gary Alan Fine. Through an engagement with the latest scholarship this work shows that in a discipline often focused on macrosocial developments and large-scale structures, the interactionist perspective which privileges the study of human interaction has continued relevance. The broad scope of this book will make it an invaluable resource for scholars and students of sociology, social theory, cultural studies, media studies, social psychology, criminology and anthropology.

Table of Content

Introduction: Instigators of Interactionism – A Short Introduction to Interactionism in Sociology; Michael Hviid Jacobsen.- Chapter 1: Georg Simmel – Interactionist Before Symbolic Interactionism?; Greg Smith.- Chapter 2: Robert E. Park – A Precursor to Interactionism; Suzie Guth.- Chapter 3: George Herbert Mead – The Evolution of Mind, Self and Society through Interaction; Antony J. Puddephatt.- Chapter 4: Everett C. Hughes – Human Ecology, Peripheries and the World of Work; Edward B. Davis.- Chapter 5: Herbert Blumer – From Critique to Perspective; Alex Dennis.- Chapter 6: Manford H. Kuhn – A Legacy in the Age of Inquiry; Michael A. Katovich.- Chapter 7: Erving Goffman – Exploring the Interaction Order through Everyday Observations and Imaginative Metaphors; Michael Hviid Jacobsen.- Chapter 8: Harold Garfinkel – Experimenting with Social Order; Dirk vom Lehn.- Chapter 9: Anselm L. Strauss – Action/Work as Process and Perspective; Jörg Strübing.- Chapter 10: Jack D. Douglas– The Existential Sociology Project; Andrey Melnikov & Joseph A. Kotarba.- Chapter 11: Howard S. Becker – Aspects of an Open Sociology; Marc Perrenoud.- Chapter 12: Stanford M. Lyman – A Sociology of the Absurd and Beyond; Cecil E. Greek & Michael Hviid Jacobsen.- Chapter 13: Arlie R. Hochschild – Interactions, Emotions and Commercialized Intimacy; Michael Hviid Jacobsen & Anders Petersen.- Chapter 14: Gary Alan Fine – From Small Groups to Peopled Ethnography; Chiara Bassetti & Roberta Sassatelli.- 

About the author

Michael Hviid Jacobsen is Professor of Sociology at Aalborg University, Denmark. He has published extensively on sociology and social theory.