Ethno/CA News:

Call for Papers: Symbolic Interaction: Special Issue: Interaction

Symbolic Interaction invites submissions for a special issue exploring approaches to the study of interaction. Interaction has been central to the symbolic interactionist enterprise from its outset. It is implied in Mead’s (1934) discussion of the “conversation of gestures” and is at the center of Blumer’s (1962) “Society as Symbolic Interaction”. Studies that emerged following Mead and Blumer’s work tended to explore the structure of the self and the interpretive processes through which participants negotiate and constitute the “definition of the situation” (e.g. Iowa School). Over the years, research in symbolic interaction has primarily considered “interpretation” as a subjective and/or cognitive process, and a vast range of studies has been conducted concerned with the “self” and “identity” as products of subjective interpretation of situations. This interest in the subjective and cognitive has given a high profile to the psychological heritage of symbolic interactionism, whilst downplaying or even marginalizing the social and
interactional interests that were at the center of the works by classic interactionist scholars like Mead, Blumer, Cooley, Simmel and Couch.

Symbolic Interaction seeks articles that are based on the research tradition of Symbolic Interactionism or combine the pragmatic tradition of Symbolic Interactionism with other approaches such as Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis, Interaction Analysis, Activity Theory and Actor Network Theory. They will provide analyses of the processes of participants’ interpretation of social situations, explore the practical constitution of “self” and “identity”, “objects” and “organization”, “group” and “community”, “trust” and “commitment”, etc, and discuss how the approaches taken towards these concepts compares or contrasts with traditional symbolic interactionist ideas. The submissions may address methodological and analytical issues arising from the study and analysis of “interaction” in social settings, or might deal with the theoretical concepts associated with particular approaches to its study. We are particularly interested in papers that can work through theoretical and methodological issues in relation to empirical areas.

Please send submissions electronically to dirk.vom_lehn (at) kcl.ac.uk and w.gibson (at) ioe.ac.uk. Deadline for submission is 15 September 2010. Please feel free to contact the editors if you wish to discuss possible papers for the special issue. For submission guidelines please consult Symbolic Interaction.


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