1. Max Weber and other early interactionists viewed society as created through the meanings and interactions of individuals, not imposed by social structures. 2. They argued that to understand society, one must examine the meanings and motivations behind individuals' actions from their own perspectives. 3. Modern interactionist theories like symbolic interactionism further developed these ideas, analyzing how individuals construct social reality and identities through the symbolic meanings they share and manipulate via language and interaction.

1. SOC 462
IDENTITY AND CULTURE
Asst. Prof. Fatma Altınbaş Sarıgül
Istanbul Kemerburgaz University
Sociology Department

2. The Development of ‘Action’ Sociology
and Interactionists
• Max Weber- German sociologist- acc. to him, culture is
created by humans through the meanings and motives
they hold which allows them to make sense of what they
do.
• The basis of that approach;
Humans are not passive victims of the social structure
Society is not a ‘thing’ but interactions of individuals
Social life is meaningful for individuals
The reality of the society can only be understood by
looking at what people do and what they think about their
actions.

3. WEBER
• All sociological explanations should try to be ‘adequate’
on 2 levels; 1.at the level of meaning – ‘Verstehen’
2.at the level of casuality – ‘Erklaren’
• To understand the reality of what society is, and how
works, we must look at how individuals make sense of
what they do.
• The task of sociology is to see how culture socializes
some symbols into a group of people, who use these
symbols to gain an understanding of what they do, what
others do, and what others expect them to do.

4. ACTION SOCIOLOGY-INTERACTIONISM
• The aim is to look at the meanings and motives of action and
interaction through the eyes of those doing the act.
• Acc. to Weber, individuals do not act unless they have a reason or
‘motivation’ to do it.
• Acc. to action sociology, culture is the collective sets of meanings,
values and motives that together make up the ‘subjective
understandings’ of all those involved in the creation of society.
• So, culture is not a thing but something that individuals do.
• Identity is essential if meaningful interaction is to take place among a
society of thinking, creative, conscious and active individuals.

5. The Ideas Of Weber
• Society is actively created by individuals.
• Individuals need to have motivations for what they do, they
have conscious over their actions.
• Culture has no overall pattern that controls and moulds the
individual- people with their own minds create culture by
interacting each other.
• Societal evolution is accidental.
• It is human action and interaction that causes social change
and societal evolution.
• The outcome of this interaction can never be predicted in
advance
• Cultural ideas and values are independent of the economy and
of how production is organized.

6. George Simmel
• Simmel also saw society as being made up of individual
members who act with full consciousness.
• ‘web of group affiliations’
• Common forms exist in each culture, but the content of social
life varies according to the individual in question.
• Society is a process of exchange, a ‘happening’ made possible
by the collective efforts of many.
• ‘Individual identity’ and ‘social group identity’ clash. – Homo Duplex

7. Identity in the ‘Modern Age’
• ‘iron cage bureaucracy’ – Weber
• ‘the metropolis’ effect- Simmels

8. Modernity
• Society heads into a particular direction
• Social change represented the onward march of progress
• Science and technology were of increasing benefit to
humankind.
• Societies and humans were becoming more rational
• The aim of sociology was to discover the ultimate truth of
social life.
Then comes postmodernism.

9. Modern Classics of Sociological Thought
• Symbolic Interactionism
It is based on the premise that humans are
active agents who manipulate symbols that have
meaning.
Founders are referred as the Chicago School
Human acitivity is a process of interaction
between self-aware, self-consciousness beings
who are able to reflect on what they do.

10. • Phenomenology
It is interested in how individuals go about the process of
creating meaning, sharing meaning and classifying
meaning through the use of symbols- especially
language.
• Ethnomethodology
They study how members of society created an ordered
social reality through their everyday lives.

11. Strengths and Weaknesses of
Interactionism
• Human are seen as active and thinking beings.
• Individuals create their own reality and the ‘structure’ of
the society.
• Individuals think about self-identity and they have some
control over it.
• Culture is seen as the outcome of shared meanings.
Humans are seen as total free will but one cannot truly do
as one wishes in society without control.
They ignore the role that power and inequality play in
shaping the outcome of interaction.
It is not clear enough how and if individuals are able to
rejct others definitions of them.