Interactionist Perspective(Interpretative)

The functionalist & conflict perspectives both analyze society at the macro-level, but the interactionist perspective analyses society or social behavior at the micro-level.

• This Perspective generalizes about fundamental or everyday forms of social interaction.
• They are focusing on the social interactions of the small groups two friends casually talking with one another a family and so on.
• The interactionist perspective in sociology was initially influenced by Max Weber.
• He had emphasized the importance of understanding the social world from the viewpoint of the individual who acts within it.
• Other key figures are George Hebert Mead, George Homand, Blumer & many more.

Key Concepts

• The interactionist perspective focuses on social behavior in everyday life. It tries to understand how people create & interpret the situations they experience, & is emphasized how countless instances of social interaction produce the larger structure of society-government, the economy & other social interactions.
• This perspective presumes that it is only through this social behavior of the people that society can come into being.
• Society is ultimately created maintained & changed by the social interaction of its members.

Key Figures

1. Erving Goffman (1959) for example takes a “dramaturgical” approach to social interaction. He sees social life as a form of theatre in which people play different parts/roles and “stage-manage” their lives & the impression they create on others.
2. George Homans (1961) prefers to have an “exchange” approach. He stresses the way people control one another’s behavior by exchanging various forms of rewards and punishment for approved and disapproved behavior.
3. Harold Gasfinkel (1967) adopts what he calls an “ethnomethodological” approach. This is only an attempt to find out how people themselves understand the routines of daily life. This approach focuses on how people’s views describe and explain the shared meaning underlying everyday social life and social routines.
4. Blumer and his symbolic interaction (1969) – Blumer was highly influenced by G.H. Mead. Descriptions of symbolic interaction are given below:

• Symbolic interaction is the interaction that takes place between people through symbols-such as a sign, gestures, shared rules, and most important written and spoken language.
• For example, Symbolic interaction is taking place between the author of the book and the readers who read the book.
• Interaction occurs whenever we obey (or disobey) traffic signals, or a “stick no bills” notice.
• The important point is that people don’t respond to that meaning. For example, the words of the book, the red light of a traffic signal have no meaning to these things and they order their lives on the basis of these meanings.

Criticism

• Neglects larger social institutions
• Symbols and abstract which are changeable over a period of time.
• Neglecting scientific approach and over-emphasis on interpreting the action.
• Behavioral patterns are changeable that might not be able to generalize(C.N. Shankar Rao).

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