HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM

Early Development of Symbolic Interactionism

Blumer, who would become a preeminent sociologist, wrote several essays on Symbolic Interactionism that would prove instrumental in its development (Ritzer 1996). Blumer furthered the development of Symbolic Interactionism by theorizing that there was more to human behavior than influences on it by outside forces or uncontrollable psychological factors. He held that these theories ignored the importance of meaning and the social construction of reality (Ritzer 1996).

Blumer identified three core principles of Symbolic Interactionism (Blumer 1969):

1.) Humans act towards things on the basis of meanings individuals have for them.

2.) Meaning is created through interaction between people.
-More specifically, the meaning for any one thing comes from the ways other people act toward the person, with regard to the thing.

3.) Meanings are modified through an interpretive process.
- In this interpretive process, an actor first indicates to herself the things she is acting towards that have meaning for her. Next, she must distinguish and manage the various different meanings the thing could have in order to create the actual meaning of that thing for her.

Blumer's Symbolic Interactionism is grounded in the following "root images" which make up and explain human action:

1.) Nature of human society or human group life: Humans are constantly engaging in action, whether individually, collectively, or as representatives of other individuals or groups. Blumer believes that this must be the starting point for any theory about society.

2.) Nature of social interaction: There are two types of social interaction. Non-symbolic interaction occurs when a person responds directly to another's actions without having to interpret the action, like a reflex. This interaction does not involve thinking. Symbolic interaction, on the other hand, does involve thinking, in that the individual must interpret and create meaning for the actions or gestures of others and respond based on those interpretations.

Social interaction is not just a medium through which the determinants of behavior pass to produce the behavior (Blumer 1969:7). Instead, the actions humans engage in are responses to the actions of other humans. Human society is based on social interaction, which occurs predominantly on the symbolic level.

3.) Nature of objects: The world is made up of objects (physical and social, such as people, and abstract such as ideas or principles) which have no fixed status except as their meaning is sustained through indications and definitions that people make of the objects (Blumer 1969:12). An object's meaning for a person arises out of the way others, with whom the person is symbolically interacting, act towards and define the object. The lives and actions of people change along with changes in their world of objects.

4.) The human being as an acting organism: We each become objects of our own actions, meaning that we each come to possess a Self that allows us to communicate and interact with ourselves. This is known as making indications to the Self. We indicate to ourselves the meaning of the actions we intend to take and we role-take in order to understand the indications that other people make about us. In other words, when we role-take, we are able to understand how our own actions will be perceived and interpreted by others. While one's Self is a determinant of the course of action one will take, it is also shaped by one's internalization of the perceptions of others. Humans come to truly interpret their social world by making indications to the self, making them acting organisms, as opposed to responding organisms, or organisms who simply automatically respond to environmental cues. As Blumer stated, "Human beings interpret or 'define' each other's actions instead of merely reacting to each other's actions" (Blumer 1969).

5.) Nature of human action: Through self-indication, one can interpret their social world and construct one's own actions. We cannot understand one person's actions until we can "get inside of the defining process of the actor" (Blumer 1969:16). It is through the human process of aligning actions, when individuals join their line of action with others, and make indications to each other, that group or joint action emerges.

6.) Interlinkage of action: Human action begins at the individual's interpretive process and "the interlinkages of human action are the building blocks of human group life" (www.cdharris.net). It is this conceptualization of collective action that allows Symbolic Interactionism to account for macro-level phenomena. Group and joint action gives rise to the collective action evident in our society. In collective action, we, as individuals, must fit our actions to each another, and it is through this process that we learn what actions are expected of us, which further pushes the interpretative process.

Blumer disagreed with sociological theories that believe large-scale, external forces determine individual action. As Blumer explained, "Structural features, such as 'culture,' 'social systems,' 'social stratification,' or 'social roles,' set conditions for [human] action but do not determine [human] action" (Blumer 1969: 88). People, then, don't act towards culture itself, or social stratification itself. They instead act towards situations that are shaped by structural features like culture and social stratification. Social action, for a symbolic interactionist, is not an expression of social structure or organization. It is a framework in which humans develop their actions.