MINISTERY OF EDUCATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS

Belarus State Economic University

REFERAT:

"SOCIAL INTERACTIONS AND SOCIAL PROCESSES"

Minsk 2008

Symbolic interactionism focuses on the subjective aspects of social life, rather than on objective, macro-structural aspects of social systems. One reason for this focus is that interactionists base their theoretical perspective on their image of humans, rather than on their image of the society (as the functionalists do). For interactionists, humans are pragmatic actors who continually must adjust their behaviour to the actions of other actors. We can adjust to these actions only because we are able to interpret them, i. e. to denote them symbolically and treat the actions and those who perform them as symbolic objects. This process of adjustment is aided by our ability to imaginatively rehearse alternative lines of action before we act. The process is further aided by our ability to think about and to react to our own actions and even our selves as symbolic objects. Thus, the interactionists sees humans as active, creative participants who construct their social world, not as passive, conforming objects of socialization.

For interactionists, the society consists of organized and patterned interactions among individuals. Thus, a research focuses on easily observable face-to-face interactions rather than on macro-level structural relationships involving social institutions. Furthermore, this focus on interaction and on the meaning of events to the participants in those events (the definition of the situation) shifts the attention of interactionists away from stable norms and values toward more changeable, continually readjusting social processes. Whereas for functionalists socialization creates stability in the social system, for interactionists negotiation among members of the society creates temporary, socially constructed relations which remain in constant flux, despite relative stability in the basic framework governing those relations.

These emphases on symbols, negotiated reality and the social construction of the society lead to an interest in the roles people play. E. Goffman, a prominent social theorist in this tradition, discusses roles dramaturgically, using an analogy to the theater, with human social behaviour seen as more or less well scripted and with humans as role-taking actors. Role-taking is a key mechanism of interaction, for it permits us to take the other’s perspective, to see what our actions might mean to the other actors with whom we interact. At other times, interactionists emphasize the improvisational quality of roles, with human social behaviour seen as poorly scripted and with humans as role-making improvisers. Role-making, too, is a key mechanism of interaction, as all situations and roles are inherently ambiguous, thus requiring us to create those situations and roles to some extent before we can act.

Social processes

Interactions between people are the framework element which serves as a broad placeholder for social processes. Process (from Latin processus – movement) is a naturally occurring or designed sequence of operations or events, possibly taking up time, space, expertise or other resource, which produces some outcome. A process may be identified by the changes it creates in the properties of one or more objects under its influence.

Processes can be classified into singular, recurrent and periodic ones. A singular process is the one which occurs only once. Few processes in nature can be considered singular. Most processes found in nature are recurrent, as they repeat more than once. Recurrent processes which repeat at a constant rate turn to periodic ones. The more periodic is a process the more useful it is as the basis of development.

Social processes are those activities, actions, events or operations that involve interaction between people. Examples of social processes are known: progress, regress, integration, adaptation, assimilation, competition, facilitation, inhibition etc. As for interaction of particular groups, it is determined by a common platform such as common individual or group interest, values, way of life etc. Let’s take such groups as the Moslems and football fans. If social behaviour of the Moslems is directed by their national customs and traditions, such as rejection from pork, social behaviour of football fans may be directed by considerable differences which further differentiate fans, for instance in Russia, as those who support the football club “Spartacus” and those who support “The Central Sport Army Club”. It means that on the basis of interactions the process of uniting of people, or integration, may take place. But interactions may also entail disintegration, and then, social behaviour of the individual or a group may become deviant from norms and values of the given social milieu, such as deviant after-match affairs between fans of different clubs.

But the given processes are associated not only with changing interests or needs of a person but with interests of the social milieu which the person is a part of. For instance, a worker was a part-time university student, received a managerial qualification and moved up to a higher social stratum, thus disintegrating with the representatives of the lower stratum. At the same time he became a manager, learnt behaviours followed by managers of a certain level (leadership, creativity etc) and actively demonstrates them, thus, integrating with the representatives of a higher stratum.

In a group a number of dynamic processes may take place; some of them are:

·  coercion on its members that enables to make them learn conformity and suggestibility;

·  formation of social roles and distribution of group roles;

·  changing of the activities of its members such as a result of facilitation as the art of leading people through processes toward agreed-upon objectives in a manner that encourages participation, ownership and creativity, or as a result of inhibition that discourages interaction and participation. ............