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Herbert Blumer

– From Critique to Perspective

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Abstract

In this chapter, the contribution of Herbert Blumer to interactionist thought will be critically examined. His life and career will be described, with particular reference to his relationships to other Chicago School thinkers, and his contributions to policy and government outlined. A short section on his empirical work (taking ethnic relations, industrial relations, fashion and media as the four main themes) will follow, describing Blumer’s contributions in relation both to those of other interactionists and to the mainstream contemporaneous sociological treatments of these topics. This will lead into the longer, final, section of the chapter, on Blumer’s methodological and theoretical contributions. This will be structured around the argument that Blumer, almost uniquely for the Chicago School sociologists, was openly critical of mainstream sociology (as in his critiques of Thomas and Znaniecki, of variable analysis, etc.), and his ultimate work on the symbolic interactionist ‘perspective’ emerged from that critical engagement as much as from his interpretation of Mead. A final section will outline two criticisms of Blumer’s position: that his was a partial interpretation of Mead’s work (da Silva) and that his methodological position was so strict as to prevent empirical work (Becker).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For Blumer’s relationships with his colleagues, and how his critiques played out institutionally, see Abbott & Gaziano (1995). Some personal reflections on Blumer’s role with respect to graduate students are in Becker (1988).

  2. 2.

    Blumer’s longer discussion of these matters in the posthumously published George Herbert Mead and Human Conduct is organised slightly differently, but is substantively the same. The focus of the discussion here is the 1966 text, because it is more clearly focused and more widely available.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England

    Alex Dennis

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  1. Alex Dennis
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Aalborg at Esbjerg, Aalborg Oest, Denmark

    Michael Hviid Jacobsen

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Dennis, A. (2017). Herbert Blumer. In: Jacobsen, M. (eds) The Interactionist Imagination. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58184-6_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58184-6_6

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