Herbert Blumer on the Interactional Order of the Democratic Society
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Publication date: 2012-03-30
Polish Sociological Review 2012;177(1):3-18
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ABSTRACT
The article draws attention to the potential significance of Herbert Blumer’s heritage in the
sociological analysis of the issues with which modern democracy has to deal. It aims to strengthen that
current of interpretation pertaining to symbolic interactionism which opposes the widespread tendency to
consider it as amicrosociological orientation. The article emphasizesmedium-range phenomena—in other
words, mesosociological problems of organizations, interest groups and social movements. Blumer helped
George H. Mead’s ideas, including the basic concept of the self, find a fuller application in sociology.
To properly evaluate Blumer’s achievements, one should consider him as a researcher of the changes
occurring in modern societies in general. He emphasized the existence of a constant process of defining
and redefining social institutions, and thus, the role of civic agency—in other words, ultimately, of the
reflexive self. In Blumer’s conceptions of symbolic interaction, joint action and negotiated order one may
see an elaboration of the interactional order of the democratic society.