Symbolic Interactionism and Cultural Studies: The Politics of Interpretation

Symbolic interactionism is one of the most enduring - and certainly the most sociological - of all social psychologies. In this work, Norman K. Denzin traces its tortured history from its roots in American pragmatism to its present-day encounter with poststructuralism and postmodernism. Arguing that if interactionism is to continue to thrive and grow it must incorporate elements of poststructural and postmodern theory into its underlying views of history, culture and politics, the author develops a research agenda which merges the interactionist sociological imagination with the critical insights of contemporary feminism and cultural studies. Norman Denzin's programmatic analysis of symbolic interactionism, which develops a politics of interpretation merging theory and practice, should be of interest to students and scholars in a wide range of disciplines, from sociology to cultural studies.