Social interaction lies at the heart of our everyday experience. We make
our way down the street and avoid crashing into others, take our place
in the supermarket queue, take care in the way we talk about others in
conversation, acknowledge the social status of people we meet, and enjoy
leisurely pursuits in the company of friends and like-minded others. All
these things are fundamental parts of human sociality that can be
discovered and understood through 'sociologies of interaction'.
This book provides an invaluable introduction to the theoretical
foundations and practical applications of interactionist approaches to
everyday life. Beginning with an overview of three core traditions -
symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology and conversation analysis,
along with Goffman's work on the interaction order - the text moves on
to examine in detail topics such as leisure, work, health and illness,
deviance, class, status and power, education, ethnic relations and
gender. Highlighting a range of empirical studies, the book shows how
sociologies of interaction have the capacity to reframe and make us
rethink conventional social science topics.
This illuminating book will be of interest to undergraduates across the
social sciences, particularly in sociology, social psychology and
communication studies, as well as those who have an interest in
understanding the interactional underpinnings of everyday life.
