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Self, Identity, and Interaction in an Ecology of Identities

  • Chapter
Advances in Identity Theory and Research

Abstract

Arguably, one of the most significant theoretical accomplishments of the 1960’s was Sheldon Stryker’s (1968, 1980) linking of symbolic interactionist ideas with mainstream sociological concerns about social structure. In a sense, Stryker rescued the study of symbolic interaction from a somewhat counterproductive fascination with idiosyncratic, creative, atypical behavioral productions in ill-defined, unconstraining behavioral settings. He reasserted the ability of the basic symbolic interactionist principle—that society shapes self which then shapes social behavior—to inform a powerful theoretical view of how social structure and the individuals that exist within it effect and constitute one another. Following role theory in concentrating on the stable, reoccurring interactions in our social system, Stryker once again made social psychology relevant to the mainstream concerns of our discipline. By linking the role patterns with the internalized meanings that roles had for individuals, he provided the connection between social structure, meaning and action that drives structural symbolic interaction today.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 85721

    Lynn Smith-Lovin

  2. Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, 27708

    Lynn Smith-Lovin

Authors
  1. Lynn Smith-Lovin
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, Riverside, Riverside, California

    Peter J. Burke

  2. Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana

    Timothy J. Owens

  3. California State University San Marcos, San Marcos, California

    Richard T. Serpe

  4. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee

    Peggy A. Thoits

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© 2003 Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers

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Smith-Lovin, L. (2003). Self, Identity, and Interaction in an Ecology of Identities. In: Burke, P.J., Owens, T.J., Serpe, R.T., Thoits, P.A. (eds) Advances in Identity Theory and Research. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9188-1_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9188-1_12

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-306-47741-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-9188-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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