1. Social Theory: SOCL/ANTH 302 Georg Simmel
SOC4044 Sociological Theory
Friday, April 28, 2017
Social Theory: SOCL/ANTH Georg Simmel
© by Ronald Keith Bolender

2. SOC4044 Sociological Theory
Friday, April 28, 2017
Georg Simmel
Born: Berlin, Germany
Family:
Business-oriented
Prosperous
Jewish
© by Ronald Keith Bolender

3. How is society possible?
SOC4044 Sociological Theory
Friday, April 28, 2017
How is society possible?
Sociologists should focus on people in relationships
Society--Patterned interactions
among members of a group
© by Ronald Keith Bolender

4. SOC4044 Sociological Theory
Friday, April 28, 2017
Everyday Life
Began with the elements of
everyday life—
playing games
keeping secrets
being a stranger
forming friendships
© by Ronald Keith Bolender

5. Macro or Micro
Resisted reducing social behavior to individual personality
Social relationships not fully explained by larger collective patterns such as “the economy.”

6. Everyday interaction creates levels of reality
Interaction order
Everyday interaction creates levels of reality
“Interaction order”
Never totally fixed
Always problematic
Capable of change

7. Task of Sociology Sociology’s Task
Society = A web of patterned Interactions
Sociology’s Task
Study forms of interactions

8. SOC4044 Sociological Theory
Friday, April 28, 2017
Sociation
Society= Name for individuals connected by interactions
Major field of study: Sociation
Patterns & Forms in which people associate and interact
© by Ronald Keith Bolender

9. Formal Sociology (Social Forms)
Forms of Interaction
For example:
Study of warfare and Study of marriage Qualitatively different subjects
Essentially similar interactive forms in martial conflict and in marital conflict

10. Formal Sociology (Social Forms)
Behavior displayed at Court of Louis XIV
At Offices of American corporations
Study forms of subordination and superordination
Common patterns

11. Forms of Social Interaction
SOC4044 Sociological Theory
Friday, April 28, 2017
Forms of Social Interaction
Social Processes
Conflict and Cooperation
Subordination and Superordination
Centralization and Decentralization
© by Ronald Keith Bolender

12. Georg Simmel: Social Types
SOC4044 Sociological Theory
Friday, April 28, 2017
Georg Simmel: Social Types
Simmel constructed a gallery of social types to
complement his inventory of social forms:
The Stranger
The Mediator
The Poor
The Adventurer
The Man in the Middle
The Renegade
© by Ronald Keith Bolender

13. Georg Simmel: Social Types
SOC4044 Sociological Theory
Friday, April 28, 2017
Georg Simmel: Social Types
The type is created through
relations with others who:
Assign him a particular position
Expect him to behave in specific ways.
© by Ronald Keith Bolender

14. Social Types: “The stranger”
SOC4044 Sociological Theory
Friday, April 28, 2017
Social Types: “The stranger”
Is not just a wanderer
“who comes today and goes tomorrow,”
having no specific structural position.
He is a “person who comes today & stays tomorrow…
He is fixed within a particular spatial group…
but his position…is determined…by the fact that
he does not belong to it from the beginning,”
and that he may leave again.
The stranger is “an element of the group itself”
While not being fully part of it. “
© by Ronald Keith Bolender

15. “The Stranger”
He therefore is assigned a role that no other members of the group can play.
By virtue of his partial involvement in group affairs he can attain an objectivity that other members cannot reach…
Moreover, being distant and near at the same time, the stranger will often be called upon as a confidante…
the stranger may be a better judge between conflicting parties than full members of the group since he is not tied to either of the contenders…

16. SOC4044 Sociological Theory
Friday, April 28, 2017
Social Types: The Poor
Once poor accept assistance
Removed from preconditions of previous status
Poverty as special status
Assign people to “poor” category
They are declassified
Private trouble becomes a public issue
© by Ronald Keith Bolender

17. The Poor The poor come to be viewed not by what they do
But what is done to them
Society creates social type of the poor
Assigns them a peculiar status that is marked only by negative attributes
By what the status-holders do not have

18. Georg Simmel: Social Types
SOC4044 Sociological Theory
Friday, April 28, 2017
Georg Simmel: Social Types
The stranger and the poor, and Simmel’s other types
Assigned their positions by specific interactive relations
Societal creations
Must act assigned roles
© by Ronald Keith Bolender

19. Georg Simmel: Dialectical Method
SOC4044 Sociological Theory
Friday, April 28, 2017
Georg Simmel: Dialectical Method
Sociation involves:
Harmony and conflict
Attraction and repulsion
Love and hatred
Human relations characterized by ambivalence
Intimate relations not only positive but also negative sentiments
© by Ronald Keith Bolender

20. Georg Simmel: Dialectical Method
SOC4044 Sociological Theory
Friday, April 28, 2017
Georg Simmel: Dialectical Method
Conflict
Strengthen existing bonds
Establish new ones
Creative rather than destructive force
© by Ronald Keith Bolender

21. Georg Simmel: Significance of Numbers
SOC4044 Sociological Theory
Friday, April 28, 2017
Georg Simmel: Significance of Numbers
One of most abstract characteristics of a group:
Number of participants
© by Ronald Keith Bolender

22. Georg Simmel: Significance of Numbers
SOC4044 Sociological Theory
Friday, April 28, 2017
Georg Simmel: Significance of Numbers
Dyad versus Triad
Dyadic relationship differs qualitatively from other types of groups
1.Two participants confronted by only one other
2. Dyad depends on each element
Elements=people, groups, countries
© by Ronald Keith Bolender

23. Georg Simmel: The Significance of Numbers for Social Life
SOC4044 Sociological Theory
Friday, April 28, 2017
Georg Simmel: The Significance of Numbers for Social Life
Dyad -> Triad
One more element added brings major qualitative change
In triad, as in all associations involving more than two persons
Each participant confront possibility of being outvoted by majority
© by Ronald Keith Bolender

24. Georg Simmel: The Significance of Numbers for Social Life
SOC4044 Sociological Theory
Friday, April 28, 2017
Georg Simmel: The Significance of Numbers for Social Life
Triad is simplest structure in which group achieves domination over component members
Social framework for constraining individual participants for collective purposes…
Triad=Characteristics of all social life:
Freedom and constraint
Autonomy and heteronomy
© by Ronald Keith Bolender

25. Georg Simmel: The Significance of Numbers for Social Life
SOC4044 Sociological Theory
Friday, April 28, 2017
Georg Simmel: The Significance of Numbers for Social Life
Third member enters dyad,
Processes become possible that previously could not take place
A third member may:
Mediate
Rejoice
Divide and Rule
© by Ronald Keith Bolender

26. The Philosophy of Money
SOC4044 Sociological Theory
Friday, April 28, 2017
The Philosophy of Money
Economic exchange is form of social interaction
When monetary transactions replaced barter
Changes in forms of interactions between social actors
© by Ronald Keith Bolender

27. The Philosophy of Money
Money is subject to:
Precise division and manipulation
Permits exact measurement of equivalents
Impersonal in ways that objects of barter, like crafts and shells, can never be

28. The Philosophy of Money
Promotes rational calculation in human interactions
Increases rationalization in modern society
Replaces personal ties with impersonal relations
Limited to specific purpose

29. The Philosophy of Money
Abstract calculation invades areas of social life such as:
Kinship relations
Esthetic (artistic) appreciation
Previously domain of qualitative rather than quantitative appraisals

30. Contributions to Sociology
Micro sociologist--Small-group research
Form rather than content of social interaction
Study of these interactions as primary task of sociology

31. Contributions to Sociology
Began inquiries from micro (individual)
Observing smallest social interactions
To see how institutions (macro) emerged from them
Differs from other classic writers--Simmel returns to the individual