Antony J. Puddephatt

INCORPORATING RITUAL INTO GREEDY INSTITUTION THEORY: The Case of Devotion in Amateur Chess

Based on ethnographic data, this article explains devotion to chess in terms of the structural mechanisms of its social organization. I use Lewis Cosers theory of greedy institutions as a way to analyze how these mechanisms influence player decisions and foster devotion to the game. Inspired largely by Randall Collins, I expand Cosers original framework by analyzing how the ritual of competitive play is structured in ways to heighten the intrinsic rewards of the game and further encourage commitment among the players. As such, devotion in chess is explained as a product of the following organizational elements: (1) isolation from competing social spheres; (2) encapsulation within a symbolic status structure; (3) a collective feeling of elite status; (4) trials of worthiness; and (5) prestructured ritual. After considering how these mechanisms operate in the world of chess, I discuss the potential of this expanded model of greedy institutions for future research across other social contexts.

Mead Has Never Been Modern: Using Meadian Theory to Extend the Constructionist Study of Technology

This article makes use of the theoretical framework of George Herbert Mead to extend the parameters of the constructionist study of technology, which is shown to suffer from two major weaknesses. First, the perspective is based upon a dualist ontology, which tends toward a solipsistic position. Second, the constructionist approach is sociologically deterministic, and fails to fully capture innovation and creativity in the technological process. Meads ontology can serve to remedy these issues, as his theory of meaning rests on a non‐dualist foundation. Further, his theory of emergence provides a way to conceptualize spontaneity and innovation in ways that are not possible using traditional constructionist approach.

Empowering newly married women in Iran : A new method of social work intervention that uses a client-directed problem-solving model in both group and individual sessions

We set out to assess the processes by which a personal empowerment-oriented intervention based on learning spaces and the Rahyab problem-solving model can help newly married women in Iran to gain more control over their life situations. Learning to use the problem-solving model independently was an important component of this seven months’ educational program. A descriptive field study design based on qualitative methods was employed for data collection and analysis. The analysis of these processes showed how, through group and individual interventions, these women could influence their intimate relationships by altering their thoughts, their management of emotions, and their overt behavior. We invite more research on how empowerment-oriented interventions can be used to support newly married women as a part of family educational programs.

Causality, Agency, and Reality: Plato and Aristotle Meet George Herbert Mead and Herbert Blumer

Abstract Causal theorizing in sociology is often presumed best handled in the domain of multivariate, quantitative variable research. In contrast, we argue that such theorizing may be more authentically accomplished within the theoretical and methodological impetus of symbolic interactionism. Analyzing notions of causality in the work of Plato and Aristotle, we consider their relevance for contemporary accounts of human group life with reference to the work of George Herbert Mead and Herbert Blumer. Rather than envisioning causality as a concatenation of external forces acting on people to produce outcomes, we focus on how people actively enter into the causal process through individual and joint action. Using the work of Plato and Aristotle, we bolster contemporary accounts of agency by locating the moving process of deliberation within the interplay of purposive activity, emotional states, bodily appetites, and changing character dispositions. Further, we show that agency as a conceptual locus point of social change is found not only in the spontaneity of linguistically enabled individuals but also in the emergent processes of deliberative interchange and collective action in the world.

Language and Mind in the Thought of G. H. Mead: Challenges from Chomsky's Linguistics

G. H. Meads social, developmental, and emergent conception of language and mind is a foundational assumption that is central to the interactionist tradition. However, the validity of this model has been challenged in recent years by theorists such as Albert Bergesen, who argues that recent advances in linguistics and cognitive psychology demonstrate that Meads social theory of language learning and his theory of the social nature of mind are untenable. In light of these critiques, and drawing on Chomskys debates with intellectuals such as Jean Piaget, John Searle, and Michael Tomasello, this chapter compares Chomskys and Meads theories of language and mind in terms of their assumptions about innateness and the nature and source of meaning. This comparison aims to address the major strengths and weaknesses in both models and shed light on how interactionists might frame these conceptual challenges in future theoretical and empirical research.

George Herbert Mead: an early sociologist of scientific knowledge

George Herbert Mead is an exemplary figure in sociology, and is central to sociological conceptions of the self and social action. However, other important aspects of Meads thought have been largely neglected, including his remarkably sophisticated and sociological theory of scientific knowledge. Traditional accounts of the sociology of science identify Thomas Kuhn, and his predecessor, Ludwig Fleck, as pioneers in the social analysis of scientific knowledge, allowing the modern constructionist school of science studies to emerge. This article challenges this history by showing Meads awareness of the sociological aspects of scientific knowledge in papers that predate both Kuhn and Fleck. Finally, Meads position attempts to avoid sociological relativism, and offers instead a pragmatist foundation to approach the study of science.

Toward a radical interactionist account of science

Abstract George Herbert Mead developed a sophisticated social and pragmatist model of science, which has escaped the attention of most modern-day scholars and symbolic interactionists. While Mead’s insights have much to offer to contemporary interactionist studies of science and technology, they are not without their shortcomings. In his analyses, Mead tends to put most of his emphasis on the concrete micro-foundations of knowledge production and the functional necessity of science as a problem-solving institution par excellence, yet he fails to seriously question the role of power and domination within the competitive terrain of scientific fields. Lonnie Athens has attempted to reconstitute the basic assumptions of symbolic interactionism by insisting that domination, rather than mere sociality, is the foundation of human existence, since the root of all social acts are comprised of super- and subordinate relations. Changing our fundamental assumptions about social action thus forces us to ask new questions about the micro- and macro-processes we explore in our research. By applying this radicalized lens to Mead’s view of science, I attempt to forge a new interactionist approach, which would better connect with and contribute to the critical wing of the science studies tradition.

George Herbert Mead

George Herbert Mead is the most important theoretical precursor to the symbolic interactionist tradition. In this chapter, I provide a brief intellectual biography of Mead, setting the context for his major ideas. I then consider his social conception of mind and self, the nature of reflective intelligence, the dialectic of the I and Me, his developmental phases of play and game, and how these relate to significant and generalized others. From here, I explore three ways in which some of his lesser-known work is being used to creatively expand sociological theory. These include (1) a greater exploration of our social interactions with the nonhuman world; (2) a deeper interest in the universal and biological aspects of the social mind; and (3) a more robust consideration of power and domination at all levels of social and institutional analysis.

A Neuropragmatist Framework for Childhood Education : Integrating Pragmatism and Neuroscience to Actualize Article 29 of the UN Child Convention

A 9-year-old Swedish girl, Milla Martin, was watching TV with her mother when she saw a film about starving African children. She became very sad and angry and asked, ‘Why don’t we do something to help these children?’ Together with some other children, Milla and her mother decided to bake cakes and sell them in order to collect money to support the starving African children. Their responsible social action inspired other children and youth in Sweden who did the same thing. They succeeded in collecting hundreds of thousands of Swedish kroner for this human cause. As a result, Milla Martin was chosen as one of the few persons nominated as ‘Swedish heroes of the year.’ Consequently in 2011, on a popular nationwide TV program involving the Swedish prime minister, she received her prize: travelling with her family to Tanzania in a ‘study-travel’ to find out how her ‘cake-baking-movement’ could help these less fortunate children.1