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Social Theory: SOCL/ANTH 302 Georg Simmel

Social Theory: SOCL/ANTH 302 Georg Simmel. Georg Simmel 1858-1918. Born : Berlin, Germany Family: Business-oriented Prosperous Jewish. How is society possible?. Sociologists should focus on people in relationships Society-- Patterned interactions among members of a group.

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Social Theory: SOCL/ANTH 302 Georg Simmel

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  1. Social Theory: SOCL/ANTH 302Georg Simmel

  2. Georg Simmel 1858-1918 • Born: Berlin, Germany • Family: • Business-oriented • Prosperous • Jewish

  3. How is society possible? • Sociologists should focus on people in relationships • Society--Patterned interactions among members of a group

  4. Everyday Life Began with the elements of everyday life— • playing games • keeping secrets • being a stranger • forming friendships

  5. Macro or Micro • Resisted reducing social behavior to individual personality • Social relationships not fully explained by larger collective patterns such as “the economy.”

  6. Interaction order • Everyday interaction creates levels of reality • “Interaction order” • Never totally fixed • Always problematic • Capable of change

  7. Task of Sociology • Society = A web of patterned Interactions • Sociology’s Task • Study forms of interactions

  8. Sociation • Society=Name for individuals connected by interactions • Major field of study: Sociation • Patterns & Forms in which people associate and interact

  9. Formal Sociology (Social Forms) • Forms of Interaction • For example: • Study of warfareand Study of marriage Qualitatively different subjects • Essentially similar interactive forms inmartial conflictand in marital conflict

  10. Formal Sociology (Social Forms) • Behavior displayed at Court of Louis XIV • At Offices of American corporations • Study forms of subordination and superordination • Common patterns

  11. Forms of Social Interaction Social Processes • Conflict and Cooperation • Subordination and Superordination • Centralization and Decentralization

  12. Georg Simmel: Social Types Simmel constructed a gallery of social types to complement his inventory of social forms: • The Stranger • The Mediator • The Poor • The Adventurer • The Man in the Middle • The Renegade

  13. Georg Simmel: Social Types The type is created through relations with others who: • Assignhim a particular position • Expect him to behave in specific ways.

  14. Social Types: “The stranger” • Is not just a wanderer • “who comes today and goes tomorrow,” • having no specific structural position. • He is a “person who comes today & stays tomorrow… • He is fixed within a particular spatial group… • but his position…is determined…by the fact that • he does not belong to it from the beginning,” • and that he may leave again. • The stranger is “an element of the group itself” • While not being fully part of it. “

  15. “The Stranger” • He therefore is assigned a role that no other members of the group can play. • By virtue of his partial involvement in group affairs he can attain an objectivity that other members cannot reach… • Moreover, being distant and near at the same time, the stranger will often be called upon as a confidante… • the stranger may be a better judge between conflicting parties than full members of the group since he is not tied to either of the contenders…

  16. Social Types: The Poor • Once poor accept assistance • Removed from preconditions of previous status • Poverty as special status • Assign people to “poor” category • They are declassified • Private trouble becomes a public issue

  17. The Poor • The poor come to be viewed not by what they do • But what is done to them • Society creates social type of the poor • Assigns them a peculiar status that is marked only by negative attributes • By what the status-holders do not have

  18. Georg Simmel: Social Types • The strangerand the poor, and Simmel’s other types • Assigned their positions by specific interactive relations • Societal creations • Must act assigned roles

  19. Georg Simmel: Dialectical Method • Sociationinvolves: • Harmony and conflict • Attraction and repulsion • Love and hatred • Human relations characterized by ambivalence • Intimate relations not only positive but also negative sentiments

  20. Georg Simmel: Dialectical Method • Conflict • Strengthen existing bonds • Establish new ones • Creative rather than destructiveforce

  21. Georg Simmel: Significance of Numbers • One of most abstract characteristics of a group: • Number of participants

  22. Georg Simmel: Significance of Numbers Dyad versus Triad • Dyadic relationship differs qualitatively from other types of groups 1.Two participants confronted by only one other 2. Dyad depends on each element • Elements=people, groups, countries

  23. Georg Simmel: The Significance of Numbers for Social Life • Dyad -> Triad • One more element added brings major qualitative change • In triad, as in all associations involving more than two persons • Each participant confront possibility of being outvoted by majority

  24. Georg Simmel: The Significance of Numbers for Social Life • Triad is simplest structure in which group achieves domination over component members • Social framework for constraining individual participants for collective purposes… • Triad=Characteristics of all social life: • Freedom and constraint • Autonomy and heteronomy

  25. Georg Simmel: The Significance of Numbers for Social Life • Third member enters dyad, • Processes become possible that previously could not take place A third member may: • Mediate • Rejoice • Divide and Rule

  26. The Philosophy of Money • Economic exchange isformof social interaction • When monetary transactions replaced barter • Changes in forms of interactions between social actors

  27. The Philosophy of Money • Money is subject to: • Precise division and manipulation • Permits exact measurement of equivalents • Impersonal in ways that objects of barter, like crafts and shells, can never be

  28. The Philosophy of Money • Promotes rational calculation in human interactions • Increases rationalization in modern society • Replaces personal ties withimpersonal relations • Limited to specific purpose

  29. The Philosophy of Money • Abstract calculation invades areas of social life such as: • Kinship relations • Esthetic (artistic) appreciation • Previously domain of qualitative rather than quantitative appraisals

  30. Contributions to Sociology • Micro sociologist--Small-group research • Form rather than content of social interaction • Study of these interactions as primary task of sociology

  31. Contributions to Sociology • Began inquiries from micro(individual) • Observing smallest social interactions • To see how institutions (macro) emerged from them • Differs from other classic writers--Simmel returns to the individual

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