Cutting Edge

Part 1 Interpretations of the theory of George Herbert Mead: interpreting the sociological classics - can there be a "true" meaning of Mead, Gary Alan Fine and Sherryl Kleinman; G.H. Mead's social behaviourism vs the structural bias of symbolic interaction, Michael Wood and Mark Wardell; George Herbert who? - symbolic critique of the objectivist reading of Mead, G. David Johnson and Peggy A. Shifflet; George Herbert Mead and the division of labour, Hans Joas; toward a neo-Meadian sociology of mind, Randall Collins. Part 2 Meadian connections: the romantic antecedents of Meadian social psychology, Dmitri Shalin; George Herbert Mead and Karl Marx - exploring consciousness and community, Mary Ellen Batiuk anbd Howard L. Sacks; symbolic interactionism and psychoanalysis, Rodney Elliot and Bernard N. Meltzer. Part 3 Herbert Blumer and interactionism: Herbert Blumer's contributions to 20th century sociology, Tamotsu Shibutani; myth, text and interactionist complicity in the neglect of Blumer's macrosociology, David Maines; substance and style - an appraisal of the sociological legacy of Herbert Blumer, Sheldon Stryker. Part 4 Dramaturgy and Goffman: the degradation of the sacred - approaches of Cooley and Goffman, Paul Creelan; dramas, metaphors and structures, R.S. Perinbanayagam; the dramaturgical model of behaviour - its strengths and weaknesses, Bruce Wilshire. Part 5 Theoretical directions in interactionism: symbolic interactionism and causality, Alfred Lindesmith; on the "symbolic" in symbolic interaction, Fred Davis; on the semiotics and symbolic interactionism, Norman Denzin; emotion as lived experience, Norman Denzin.