Elaborate the main tenets of interpretative perspective in sociology. (UPSC CSE Mains 2017 - Sociology, Paper 1)
- Interpretative sociology is the study of society that concentrates on the meanings people associate to their social world. Within interpretive sociology, symbolic interactionism is a theory that uses everyday interactions of individuals to explain society as a whole. Interpretive theory is more accepting of free will and sees human behavior as the outcome of the subjective interpretation of the environment. Interpretive theory focuses on the actor''s definition of the situation in which they act.
- Interpretive theory is typically contrasted with structural theories which claim to remove the subjectivity of the actor and the researcher and assume that human behavior can best be understood as determined by the pushes and pulls of structural forces. Interpretive theory seeks reciprocal inter-subjective understanding of subjects. Max Weber consolidated and developed a rich mass of interpretive theory of religion in his volumes on Judaism, Christianity, swiss replica watches the Protestant Ethic, Confucianism, Hinduism and Islam.
- Interpretive theory is more accepting of free will and sees human behaviour as the outcome of the subjective interpretation of the environment. Interpretive theory focuses on the actor’s definition of the situation in which they act. Although symbolic interactionism traces its origins to Max Weber’s assertion that individuals act according to their interpretation of the meaning of their world, the American philosopher George Herbert Mead introduced this perspective to American sociology. Symbolic interactionism is a major framework of sociological theory. This perspective relies on the symbolic meaning that people develop and rely upon in the process of social interaction. The notion of the social construction of reality lies at the heart of symbolic interactionist perspective.
The basic tenets underlying symbolic interactionism are
- The individual and society are regarded, as inseparable for the individual can become a human being only in a social context.
- Human beings are viewed as acting on the basis of meaning that they give to the objects and events rather than simply reacting either to external stimuli such as social forces or internal stimuli such as drives.
- Meanings arise from the process of interaction rather than being simply present at the outset. To some degree meanings are created, modified, developed and changed within interactive situation rather than being fixed and preformed.
- Meanings are the result of interpretative procedures employed by actors within interactions context by taking the role of others; actors interpret the meanings and intentions of others. By means of mechanism of self-interaction, individuals modify or change definitions of their situation rehearse alternative course of interactions and consider their possible consequences. These meanings that guide actions arise in the context of interaction via a series of complex interpretative procedures.
- The methodology of symbolic interactionism as advocated by Herbert Blumer demands that the sociologist must immerse himself in the area of life that he seek to investigate. Rather than attempting to fill data into predefined categories, he must attempt to grasp the actor''s view of social reality. Since action is directed by actor meanings the sociologist must catch the process of interpretation through which the actors construct their action. This means, he must take the role of the acting unit whose behavior he studies.
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