ON SEMIOTICS AND SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM

The place of semiotics within symbolic interactionist thought is discussed. The works of Barthes and Baudrillard are examined in terms of their implications for (1) an interactionist theory of the cultural object and (2) an interpretation of consumer relations in the postmodern period. The narrative texts of advertisements for Jack Daniel's Whiskey ** 1 Grateful acknowledgment and appreciation is given to the Jack Daniel Distillery for permission to use their advertising text as it appears on their product.
and Dewar's White Label Scotch *** 2 Grateful acknowledgment and appreciation is given to Dewar's for permission to use their advertising profile of Gary Jobson.
are analyzed in terms of the political economy of the sign suggested by Baudrillard and Barthes. The implications of this analysis for the symbolic interactionist theory of the object and language are discussed. The subject matter that now confronts us supersedes symbolic interaction; rather it is the process surrounding the autonomization of signs; signs that stand for—and refer to—nothing but themselves.     

ETHNOMETHODOLOGY AND SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM: A CRITICAL COMPARISON OF TEMPORAL ORIENTATIONS*

For some time, sociologists have called for the study of the temporal characteristics of social life. Ethnomethodology and Symbolic Interactionism are two sociological theories which have begun to develop analyses of social timing. In this report, exemplary research efforts from each perspective are examined and evaluated along the temporal dimensions of the past, order, sequence, and the future. It is shown that research methods are key in elaborating or hindering the study of temporality. Specifically, Symbolic Interactionists' strategies have allowed a rich temporal orientation to be developed and specified whereas strategies employed by Ethnomethodologists have resulted in research that is confined to the immediate realm of experience and thereby have been narrow in temporal scope.     

G. H. MEAD'S SOCIAL BEHAVIORISM VS. THE ASTRUCTURAL BIAS OF SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM*

Symbolic inleractionism has been criticized for having an astructural bias. This paper presents a response to that criticism by examining the ontological stance contained in Mead's social behaviorism and contrasting it with the ontological stance of symbolic interactionism's chief architect, Herbert Blumer. Mead's social behaviorism is shown to be a nondualist philosophy of conduct based solidly on conceptions of the human community and of individual conduct as organized on the basis of social acts–a view not shared by Blumer.     

Presidential Address INTERACTIONISM AND THE STUDY OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

This article presents a set of six analytic categories–collective activity, network, conventions–practices, resources, processuality-temporality, and grounding—collectively as a paradigm for studying social organization. A review of recent interactionist scholarship generated these categories. The article focuses on the meso domain, where situated activity, history, and structure converge. Some theoretical, methodological, and substantive implications are suggested.     

KEEPING SYMBOLIC INTERACTION SAFE FROM SEMIOTICS: A RESPONSE TO HARMAN

This article provides a critique of the particular way in which Lesley D. Harman has proposed to accommodate Symbolic Interaction to semiotic theory and method. Harman's argument rests on a belief in the reality of the nature/culture dimension as prior to semiotic or sociological theory. According to Harman's view, nature is the realm of determinism, culture is the realm of freedom, and social theory ought to align itself with freedom and culture. A semiotic alternative based on Peirce's concept of the sign is suggested. The alternative socio-semiotic approach opens the possibility of studying both cultural determinism and creative processes in nature.     

THE LANGUAGE OF TIME: TOWARD A SEMIOTICS OF TEMPORALITY

This article examines temporality from a semiotic perspective, as a quasi-linguistic system of signification, shedding light on the rudimentary elements of the "language' of time and the way both individuals and societies use them in their "speech.' It first explores how people manipulate various dimensions of temporality (e.g., duration, speed, frequency, timing) as virtual semiotic codes through which they manage to convey various social messages (e.g., about priority, importance, commitment, respect, intimacy, informality) without having to articulate them verbally. It then proceeds to show that this schema of symbolic relations between the temporal and the social seems to operate not only at the microsocial level of interpersonal relations but also at the macrosocial level of societal politics. Using the Jewish Sabbath, the Christian Lord's Day, and the French Republican calendar as case studies, it examines the way "temporal contrasts' are used to substantiate and accentuate social (conceptual, cultural, and political) contrasts. The article introduces the "semiotic quadrangle,' the use of which enables the student of symbolic communication to view meaning as a function of an entire system of symbolic associations at both semantic and syntactic levels.     

THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF RELIGIOUS INTEGRATION AND SUICIDE:

Recent research suggests that Durkheimian ideas on the impact of religious affiliation on suicide need to be updated and tailored to the modern cultural landscape of the United States. Following up on the importance of how historical context has shifted the integrative power of denominational networks, this article pursues the potential utility of a networks, perspective by suggesting that a significant contextual element has been neglected to date: Geographical context, both regional and rural-urban dimensions, also delimits the differential ability of religions to form a "community' of social support capable of integrating individuals. If the network approach provides a useful direction, the effects of religious affiliation across geographical areas should vary in a manner consistent with notions of how social structural opportunity and tradition (of lack thereof) affect religious network strength. Analyses of detailed suicide, religion, and sociodemographic data by region and population density in U.S. county groups do, in fact, indicate that for many major religious groups the effects of religious affiliation on suicide vary across geographical areas, consistent with network theory. For example, while Judaism's protective effect is small overall, it is large in the Northeast and reversed in the South. The protective strength also is reversed for Catholicism in the South and many Evangelical Protestant groups in the Northeast. Overall, the results suggest that region exerts a greater impact on religious affiliation effects than does population density, though the latter does impact on Catholic and Jewish effects.     

THE SYMBOLIC CONSTRUCTION OF RUSSIA AND THE UNITED STATES ON RUSSIAN NATIONAL TELEVISION

Analysis of 1995 Vremya (Russian national television) newscasts reveals few traces of the cold-war framework that dominated news media discourse throughout the world for almost four decades. The ability of Vremya to reconstruct its images of Russia and the United States reaffirms the contention of Edelman, Hall, and others that media news accounts evoke a spectacle that is an ideological product, not a set of facts. The spectacle of politics is a fetish, a creation that then dominates the thought and action of its creators.     

SIMMEL'S FORMS OF EXPERIENCING: THE ADVENTURE AS SYMBOLIC WORK

Simmel says the content of experience does not make the adventure, the form does! To help clarify this remark, the Simmelian adventurer here is recast, following leads from Mead, Burke, and the pragmatists, as an ephemeral role incumbent engaged in symbolic work. The adventure is presented in terms of symbolic conversions of the content of life's experiences—physical things, social things, events, and persons—into objects of adventure. The form of experiencing engages the adventurer in symbolic work in which she or he symbolically synthesizes, antagonizes, and compromises Simmel's fundamental categories of life: certainty-uncertainty, chance-necessity, and passivity-activity.     

NATIVITY DIFFERENCES IN PHYSICAL HEALTH: THE ROLES OF EMOTIONAL SUPPORT,FAMILY, AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION

U.S. immigrants are a physically healthy population, but we do not understand the explanatory factors responsible for their physical health status, particularly those related to social network support. Using data from the 2001 wave of the National Health Interview Survey, we examine multiple measures of immigrant adaptation, investigating their influence on measures of physical health. In particular, we examine how well indicators of social support and integration explain the immigrant health advantage. Results show clear evidence of an immigrant paradox in physical health, but that measures of support and integration explain almost none of the immigration effect on physical health.     

THE EXTENT OF THE MARKET AND INTEGRATION THROUGH FACTOR MARKETS: EVIDENCE FROM WHOLESALE ELECTRICITY

We document the influence of factor markets in determining the extent of the market, appealing to the Mundell hypothesis that trade in goods and factor markets are substitutes. We confirm this influence using the U.S. wholesale market for electric power. Although the Eastern, Western, and Texas regions cannot trade electricity, inputs such as natural gas move freely across these regions. Through a set of price transmission ratios, and a supply model for natural gas, we find regional electricity shocks do propagate across regions. We conclude output markets institutionally in autarky achieve modest degrees of economic integration through factor markets. (JEL C32, L94, Q41)