Blue Ribbon Papers; Interactionism: the Emerging Landscape

Volume 36 of "Studies in Symbolic Interaction" is solely devoted to the "Blue-Ribbon Papers". Nine papers are published in which hotly-contested issues are raised that, even if only resolved partially, could permanently change the future direction of interactional thought. Among the questions addressed are: whether there ever existed a genuine sociological school of thought based on "interactionsim" at the University Chicago, whether Herbert Blumer misinterpreted the major thrust of George Herbert Mead's thought, whether conventional or radical interactionism is the most insightful perspective from which to examine crucial life decisions that are conflict-ridden, whether George Herbert Mead's and George Santayana's perspectives converged with or diverged from one another's and with radical interactionism, whether language develops primarily from the inside out or from the outside in, whether personal economics is mainly responsible for self esteem and the over-all functioning of the self in everyday life, and whether filming constitutes a method of recording data that traditional ethnographers should include in their tool box?

Norman K. Denzin is professor of sociology, cinema studies, and interpretive theory at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He was awarded the George Herbert Mead Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction. He is the author of several books, including The Alcoholic Society, Children and Their Caretakers, Hollywood Shot by Shot, Sociological Methods, and The Values of Social Science.

Lonnie Athens is a professor of criminal justice at Seton Hall University. He is the author of two books, The Creation of Dangerous Violent Criminals and Violent Criminal Acts and Actors Revisited. He also co-edited Violent Acts and Violentization.