This edited collection showcases the usefulness of symbolic interactionism in examining concurrent social issues which demand researchers’ attention - symbolic interactionists demonstrate their roots in pragmatism by examining contemporary social issues, mental health, gun control and the homeless. Although these issues have been around for quite some time, recent changes in social, political, and economic landscapes have escalated the significance of these issues in everyday life.

While these issues have traditionally been examined using a quantitatively “big data” approach, authors here illustrate the usefulness of utilizing the symbolic interactionist methodology, an empirical endeavor that keys on micro interactional developments, in providing understandings of these social issues. Theoretically, chapters showcase the utility of symbolic interactionism, a perspective for investigating the meanings of objects, social relationships, and how objects become linked to social structures, in providing significant contributions to the advancement of knowledge of these social issues. Stressing the importance of examining mental health, gun control and the homeless as social constructs that involve social relationships and communication processes of actors in various structures, the authors utilize theoretical concepts such as reflexivity, interaction, and willfulness as pivot points in analyzing these social issues.

Calling for researchers’ attention to study urgent social issues by demonstrating the effectiveness of symbolic interactionism as a research tool both theoretically and methodologically, this is appealing reading for both emerging and established interactionist scholars.

About the Author

Shing-Ling S. Chen is Professor of Mass Communication in the Department of Communication and Media at the University of Northern Iowa, USA. Trained by Carl J. Couch as a symbolic interactionist, she studies information technologies and social orders, as well as communication processes and social relationships.

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