Kagoshima University Computing & Communications Center “Publications” 2003 No. 16
Special Feature
Introduction of Study Cases
“Symbolic Interactionism Notes” Web Release
Tsukasa Kuwabara
Department of Economics, Faculty of Law, Economics and Humanities
I have been studying sociological theory, specifically “Symbolic Interactionism”, since graduate school. The first time I came in contact with this theory was after I was admitted to the Department of Regional Science of the Faculty of Letters at Kumamoto University (April, 1988), and I switched from taking the “Folklore Studies Course” to the “Sociology Course”, and began studying medical sociology. The field of medical sociology includes a wide range of topics, but my focus was on researching the communication between the medical staff and patients in hospice care. Through my research, I studied the theories of sociologists, B. G. Glaser and A. L. Strauss. However, after graduated university,when I was an “Auditing Student”, Graduate School of Literature, Kumamoto University, 1993, I learned that the latter of the two had played a part in a theory called “Symbolic Interactionism”, of which I later made my specialty, as my interest shifted to the theory itself, drifting away from medical sociology. I have been posting relevant information on my homepage http://ecowww.leh.kagoshima-u.ac.jp/staff/kuwabara/index.html since 2001. Below is a detailed list. (1) “Symbolic Interactionism Reference List”
(2) “Graduation Thesis Abstract”
(3) “Master’s Thesis”
(4) “Master’s Thesis Abstract”
(5) “Doctoral Thesis”
(6) “Doctoral Thesis Abstract”
(7) “The First Chicago School of Sociology and Blumer’s Symbolic Interactionism”
(8) “The Social Nature of Self”
(9) “Interaction and Mutual Consent”
Symbolic Interactionism is one of the sociological and social psychological perspectives that American sociologist, Herbert George Blumer, established in the beginning of the 1960s. It focuses on the social interaction of humans, symbolic interaction in particular, and tries to explain such phenomena from the “actor’s perspective”. The historical origin of Symbolic Interactionism is normally traced back to the works of George Herbert Mead (1863–1931). Mead has published many works in his lifetime, but his impact to Symbolic Interactionism mainly came from, 1) published lecture transcripts and notes taken by his students, and 2) through the interpretations of Mead’s work by his student at the time, H. G. Blumer. Blumer published many papers in the 1950s and 60s, systematizing Symbolic Interactionism. There was a period of time in which “symbolic interactionism” was synonymous with Blumer. However, new leaders of Symbolic Interactionism appeared in the 70s and 80s, such as Norman Denzin, Anselm Strauss, Sheldon Stryker, and Gary Fine, which lead to it being explored in new directions, as well as the development of various criticisms. Further, in the 80s, Ervin Goffman presented the method of Dramaturgy. I have tried to put together as many research papers and bodies of work, domestic and international, relating to symbolic interactionism as possible. In enumerating the literature, I followed the explanatory notes in http://warp.da.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/7704001/ecowww.leh.kagoshima-u.ac.jp/staff/kuwabara/19700121/doctor.htm as a general rule.
… (The Research Society of Sociology and Social Science Foundations is based on the principles of “questioning the foundations” and “ensuring sufficient discussion”, held by Hironao Harie, Wakkanai Hokusei Gakuen University).
… (Book guides, analects, translations, etc., relating to German sociologist, Niklas Luhmann. Created by Yasuto Sakai.)
… (A collection of links to online sociological literary works.)
… Created by Takanori Yamao, Sakushin Gakuin University)
…The paper attempts to explicate the mechanism by which the brain death and organ transplant issues are generated via William Fielding Ogburn’s theory of Cultural Lag. When discussing social change, Ogburn argued that it is the culture that is changing rather than society, categorizing culture into material culture, adaptive culture, and psychological culture (the latter two “cultures” are collectively called “non-material culture”). According to Ogburn, the speed in which each of these three cultures change are not the same, resulting in a “lag”. In other words, whereas material culture changes quickly, adaptive culture lags behind in its speed to change, and psychological culture lags even further. Ogburn coined this phenomenon as “cultural lag”, and with rapid cultural changes in modern society, it has become a prominent social issue. The examinations of this paper (Graduation Thesis, Kumamoto University) clearly show that the brain death and organ transplant issues in Japan are results of this cultural lag (material culture = “state-of-the-art medical technology, particularly that of respirators, angiorrhaphy, and immunosuppressants”, adaptive culture = “law, particularly the Organ Transplant Law, etc.”, psychological culture = “Japanese people’s view of life and death, and remains”) (Journal of Economics and Sociology 54 (2001): 80 - 81, The Economic Society of Kagoshima University)…
The entire body of “Rethinking The Relationship Between Actors and Society in Herbert George Blumer’s Symbolic Interactionism”, submitted to the Faculty of Arts and Letters of the Graduate School of Tohoku University, as the author’s master’s thesis.
The contents of this page are “Thesis Abstract” and “Thesis Examination Results Abstract” with slight revisions to the latter paper, both of which are on pages 248–259 of a booklet called “Doctoral Thesis Abstracts and Examination Result Abstracts Faculty of Letters, Volume 11th(Conferred in 1999)”. The contents on this page are also published as the following. Kuwabara, Tsukasa. “An Introduction to Symbolic Interactionism (3)–Tohoku University Doctoral Thesis (PhD) Examination Abstract–“ (Department of Economics, Kagoshima University, Journal of Economics and Sociology 54 [2001]).
Aside from publishing the “Journal of Economics and Sociology”, the Department of Economics of the Faculty of Law and Letters has a program that releases research results in “Discussions Papers In Economics and Sociology”. My manuscript is on this page, published through this program. Kuwabara, Tsukasa. “The First Chicago School of Sociology and Blumer’s Symbolic Interactionism” (The Economic Society of Kagoshima University, (ed.), “Discussion Papers In Economics and Sociology” No.0203, The Economic Society of Kagoshima University [2002]).
Both are articles that have been contributed to the textbook (the first, included in the Mamoru Funatsu and Kiyoshi Ando authored “Social Psychology of Ego and Self”, Hokuju Publishing, 2002, and the latter, authored by Isamu Ito and Naohito Tokugawa, is included in “Social Psychology of Interaction”, Hokuju Publishing, 2002), which have been revised and posted online.
