Schwalbe et al.s (2000) view of blockages goes beyond Merton to state that higher elites impose oppressive othering on low status people through emotion, discrimination, and self-processes of internalization or counter-othering. The daughter complains to her grandmother, who has been an underpaid domestic for many decades to a prominent old and respected family. They are not as subordinated as those with degraded status, and they may achieve some limited mobility. But it is the high ranking but protected people and the low-ranking discriminated people who are the most likely to engage in social mobility conflicts. Symbolic interactionism asks the question, what might happen when two people of different ethnic or racial . They will develop positive generalized others with the subcultures that they may produce. Symbolic interactionism is a micro-level theory that focuses on meanings attached to human interaction, both verbal and non-verbal, and to symbols. Differentiating these relationships gives meaning to positive and negative types of generalized others in the social mobility process. The whole process of oppressive othering is linked to highly charged emotions on the part of both the oppressors and the subordinates. 2005 Jun;56 (2):191-213. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-4446.2005.00055.x. While the women largely stay at home, the male members of this kin group help each other to gain high paying jobs within the same industry as her husband with one becoming quite wealthy. Exchange theory then leads to bargaining processes, which will be discussed more fully in chapter 9 on the macro-level. In row 2 (items 4, 5 and 6) high ranking people have largely inherited their rank by ascriptive principles and they rely on their traditional positions but may need to engage in defensive othering and internalization, In row 3 (items 7, 8 and 9), some people have high rank due to bias and discrimination and they are quite insecure and very much subject to downward mobility. Economists would like to apply restricted exchange to all types of social exchange (e.g., Gary Beckers rational account of marriages and partnerships, and also sociobiological theories that see couples maximizing their gene pools for reproduction). Thus, social stratification is a result of these individual interactions. The couples' income was relatively low, with 75 percent earning less than $14,000 a year. Search in book: Search Contents. According to symbolic interaction theory, people are capable of change: when we make a mistaken assumption, our interactions with others can help to correct our misconceptions. The interactionist perspective on inequality looks at how certain social roles have more power or authority than others. Social exchange is more generalized exchange as one might pursue in ones family or friend network. They largely do not see their bad luck as deserved but nonetheless it is what it is. They will often engage with higher ranked persons with cooperation and attempts at patronage and opportunism. DuBois was one of the first sociologists to examine race and double consciousness (the feeling that one's identity is divided because of race) and how that influences the sense of self. For instance, Anselm Strauss (1978; Strauss et al. And you know that the funeral director will not only do it to repay his debt, but if he does not, the Don will most certainly take a pound of flesh. Although the favored Joe Jr. died in World War II, Joseph Kennedys sons John F., Robert and Ted Kennedy had peak political careers. But until that day, accept this justice as a gift on my daughters wedding day.. Generalized exchange looks to the betterment of the group as a whole, while restricted exchange is about the individual gaining for themselves. When people engage in sociation often with generalized exchange they are interacting according to the process of sociation. But when people engage in strategic interaction they are following interaction through power, which may be conscious by tough negotiators or may have been socialized into them through violentization. And further, there are processes in between. The middle category of high and low status persons could move up or down depending on the circumstances. Their motto, Wilson and Wilson, For the People dominates the airwaves on TV and the internet decrying the greed of insurance companies. This section interrogates the concept of power and its weak presence in symbolic interactionist theory, and then goes into the theorys conceptions of inequality. Social networks of kin and association in social mobility settings can occur in different formats according to bonding and bridging capital. These reactions will also relate to the processes of positive, negative, and neutral generalized others discussed in the previous section. We do not have to trade caring for power, and for the most part, we can see these two forces as being consubstantial in society. This means that for those who go upward on the social scale, some will go downward. The first type is restricted exchange that is best characterized by market exchange whereby one gives money for some goods or services. Their generalized others will have fewer long-term relationships and rely on a constant influx of new exchangers. The merit-based high-status persons and the low-skilled degraded low-status persons will most likely stay where they are in the social structureone feeling superior and the other deferential. George Herbert Mead does not say much about power in his social psychological theory, and when encountering the topic, the authoritative symbolic interactionist text by Sandstrom, Lively, Martin and Fine (2014: 177-184) after a very brief review of the concept largely embraces the social exchange theory of Richard Emerson (1962) that sees power as dependency. Rose Kennedy kept the family strongly united with frequent family gatherings (Patterson and Fagen 2020). After a successful business and political career, he promoted his sons as politicians. The two types are when the groups overlap or they do not. Reading across the tables columns, the first three rows represent higher status persons, and the latter three rows are lower status persons. Second, Beverly Johnson comes from an ethnic and lower-middle-class family and marries a man whose family has a prominent background. Sometimes these exchanges are made more long-term, but they are carefully guarded by contracts assuring each partys interests are protected. Social exchange theory and symbolic interactionism are often thought of polar opposites, and in some ways they are. While they may have their differences, they show a lot of similarities when comparing certain traits within a certain theory including the economic inequality, deviance and gender as discussed above. Communicationthe exchange of meaning through language and symbolsis believed to be the way in which people make sense of their social worlds. Recall, the Mafia Don played by Marlon Brando in the opening scene of The Godfather taking care of an Italian fathers wish to revenge the shabby treatment of his daughter by some Anglo-boys. Also, Richard Titmus in the The Gift Relationship (1997) describes the difference between exchanging blood based on it being a gift or being paid for the donation. Ones and the others alternatives are measured by the number of alternatives times their value, which is the value of the alternative times its probability. Not all interaction is bargaining, and if someone in our personal lives is constantly keeping score and pursuing the maximum goods and services in our relationships, we most often regard this person as a taker who is too instrumentally interested in outcomes in a friendship relationship. The same would apply to group exchange. It is also discussed in a rather ethnomethodological form in Josh Pacewiczs Partisans and Partners (2016), though the gift relationship large resembles these other generalized exchange forms. First, Helen Hilton marries a musician who then becomes a factory worker. However, this negotiation is rather loose and not involved with a formal assessment of power. While this more or less goes back to Thomas Hobbes and the war of all against all, we do not have to flip flop on the basic motivations of humans and see that we all are motivated by both love and hate, cooperation or conflict, or caring and violence. This is presented in table 5.2 along with material from Jonathan Turner and Jan Stets (2004). The mother reluctantly buys the dress for the ecstatic daughter, but angrily tells her mother (the daughters grandmother) that the scion has underpaid you for years, and that this is exactly what keeps us in our place.. While her husbands father dies soon after they are married, she entertains guests with the purpose of advancing her husbands sales career in business machines. Third, the eldest son of a middle-class family, George Wilson, becomes a personal injury lawyer and is quite successful. Symbolic interaction has a particular weakness concerning a concept critical to political sociology and that is the concept of power. Michael Schwalbe and five others present a theory of critical interactionism on how inequalities are created in society, and these can also be related to social mobility. The conflict theory garners most individuals into two classes that stimulate inequality. Inequality and Social Mobility in Symbolic Interactionism. These reactions will also relate to the processes of positive, negative, and neutral generalized others discussed in the previous section. How does symbolic interaction theory explain inequality? The firm of Wilson and Wilson become quite successful, and eventually the younger brothers and two children who become lawyers then expand the business to six other states. For example, the word 'dog' is just a series of letters. Not all interaction is bargaining, and if someone in our personal lives is constantly keeping score and pursuing the maximum goods and services in our relationships, we most often regard this person as a taker who is too instrumentally interested in outcomes in a friendship relationship. Third, the eldest son of a middle-class family, George Wilson, becomes a personal injury lawyer and is quite successful. Symbolic Interactionism. They must struggle to keep their high status. With higher divorce rates, there is a direct correlation between the way we view the roles in a marriage/family and the overall health of said . Social Exchange in Symbolic Interaction with Bonding and Bridging Capital. But it is the high ranking but protected people and the low-ranking discriminated people who are the most likely to engage in social mobility conflicts. The other form of strategic exchange is much narrower in scope and as a result it is called restricted exchange. In row 5 (items 13, 14, and 15) people may be of low rank because of accidents or bad luck. Exclusive group negotiations may be harder to maintain than overlapping negotiations. Generalized exchange is more community and group interested rather than self-interested. Symbolic interactionism and the concept of power Symbolic interactionism and the concept of power . Rose Kennedy kept the family strongly united with frequent family gatherings (Patterson and Fagen 2020). These reactions will also relate to the processes of positive, negative, and neutral generalized others discussed in the previous section. But again, the social mobility boundary is fought most between row 3 of the vulnerable high-status people, and row 6 of the discriminated against but talented low-status persons. George Herbert Mead does not say much about power in his social psychological theory, and when encountering the topic, the authoritative symbolic interactionist text by Sandstrom, Lively, Martin and Fine (2014: 177-184) after a very brief review of the concept largely embraces the social exchange theory of Richard Emerson (1962) that sees power as dependency. And downward mobility is much more painful than lack of mobility. In other words, if you constantly depend on another person for food, income, entertainment and shelter (e.g., a child to a parent, or a worker to the managers of a company town), while you supply none of these and other values to the other, then your other has a high amount of power over you since they could deny you these values. Social exchange theory and symbolic interactionism are often thought of polar opposites, and in some ways they are. There are some strong inclinations toward bargaining theory in symbolic interactionist theory. [3] In the professions literature, a particular profession often engages in a professional project to raise the status of the group as a whole. Each one of these families utilized various aspects of generalized exchange in what they perceived as their social mobility prospects. Symbolic Interactionism, Inequality, and Emotions. First, Helen Hilton marries a musician who then becomes a factory worker. In restricted exchange, there are six different types from individual to various types of group and societal exchanges (1, 3 to 6 in Table 5.1) (Ekeh 1974: 46-52; Janoski 1998: 77-82). Consistent with its micro orientation, symbolic interactionism tries to understand stratification and thus poverty by looking at people's interaction and understandings in their daily lives. However, this negotiation is rather loose and not involved with a formal assessment of power. In row 1 (items 1, 2 and 3) high status persons who feel that their status is based on ability engage in self-justified othering where they are validated, and they develop powerful virtual selves. More recently, Monica Whitman (2021) has shown that a strong norm of reciprocity will have powerful effects leading to social trust and generalized exchange for the betterment of the group. The merit-based elites may protect the less able elites, and the discriminated subordinates with abilities may encourage the deferential people with hope. As we have seen with the Trump-base, many of these people state I want my country back and Make America Great again. While one might self-righteously declare them as unjustified, they do not agree, and they are a political force to be reckoned with. We do not have to trade caring for power, and for the most part, we can see these two forces as being consubstantial in society. Not all interaction is bargaining, and if someone in our personal lives is constantly keeping score and pursuing the maximum goods and services in our relationships, we most often regard this person as a taker who is too instrumentally interested in outcomes in a friendship relationship. There are two types of exchange that can be applied to symbolic interactionism. The two types are when the groups overlap or they do not. And lastly, Joseph P. Kennedy was the son of a successful Irish businessman. This is presented in table 5.2 along with material from Jonathan Turner and Jan Stets (2004). The firm of Wilson and Wilson become quite successful, and eventually the younger brothers and two children who become lawyers then expand the business to six other states. Among her husbands business associates, it consists of being the life of the party and maintaining long-term friendships with business associates. Further examples can be seen in the development of trade unions. In their fearful position, they intensify their oppressive othering through discrimination with high intensity and emotion. They see four factors as being important in the creation of inequality: oppressive othering, boundary maintenance, emotion management, and subordinate adaptations (Schwalbe et al. In table 5.1, I present eleven different exchange relationships divided between restricted and generalized exchange, but I will only go over the main points. In row 6 (items 16, 17 and 18) lower status persons with perhaps certain abilities and talents that they themselves recognize view their low status as being due to discrimination and bias coming from higher status persons. These may be negotiated by a leader but the followers know the terms of the agreement and are quick to point out any violations. This type of exchange is favored by rational choice proponents and economists who see it as the paramount exchange that exists in markets. For an auto example, Ford Motor Company has had many Ford family members running the company; however, General Motors has had only one Sloan in the form of Alfred P. Sloan who had no children and his foundation operates on the East Coast. As we have seen with the Trump-base, many of these people state I want my country back and Make America Great again. While one might self-righteously declare them as unjustified, they do not agree, and they are a political force to be reckoned with. Among her kin, she aims to keep the family together for over 50 years with parties with over 60 people. The whole process of oppressive othering is linked to highly charged emotions on the part of both the oppressors and the subordinates. The end result is a more nuanced and extended theory of power in society with elements of motivation at the individual and group level. And lastly, Joseph P. Kennedy was the son of a successful Irish businessman. One might say that this looks a bit like Robert Mertons theory of deviance (1938); however, the big difference is that Merton focused on blockages that exist but said little about the motivation and process by which they are accepted or overcome, and nothing about the emotions that they generate. For an auto example, Ford Motor Company has had many Ford family members running the company; however, General Motors has had only one Sloan in the form of Alfred P. Sloan who had no children and his foundation operates on the East Coast. Second, Beverly Johnson comes from an ethnic and lower-middle-class family and marries a man whose family has a prominent background. Recall, the Mafia Don played by Marlon Brando in the opening scene of The Godfather taking care of an Italian fathers wish to revenge the shabby treatment of his daughter by some Anglo-boys. In row 6 (items 16, 17 and 18) lower status persons with perhaps certain abilities and talents that they themselves recognize view their low status as being due to discrimination and bias coming from higher status persons. It integrates a bargaining theory of power into symbolic interactionism, and alters the symbolic interactionist discussion of power by putting it into a context of social exchange and types of social mobility.
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