Category: Theory

Impressions of Goffman

On By Karen SternheimerIn Social Institutions: Work, Education, and Medicine, TheoryLeave a comment
Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz author photo

By Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Professor Emerita, University of Wisconsin-Parkside, associate faculty at Royal Roads University (Canada), and Director of the Center for Intercultural Dialogue

One of the concepts Erving Goffman wrote about was “impression management.” He was interested in the control people have over what others learn about them. Sometimes the impression one gives is quite different from the reality, and often that’s deliberate. Let me give an example, describing something from Goffman’s life. He has often been said to have been a “loner.” While it is true that he never co-authored a publication, there is a difference between publishing and more informal collaborations.

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Understanding Social Construction: What Makes a Country a Country?

On By econnellIn Karen Sternheimer, TheoryLeave a comment

By Karen Sternheimer

Recently, I took a hiking trip to the Alps, spending time in Chamonix, France, and Courmayeur, Italy. These two alpine towns are connected by a tunnel through Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps. The tunnel is just over 7 miles, and it took us less than an hour to get from town to town by bus.

And yet, when some acquaintances heard that we were in Italy and France, they asked if we went to Rome (about 500 miles from Courmayeur) or Paris (about 425 miles from Chamonix) and were perplexed when we said no.

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Getting into Sociology: Advice for High School Students

On By econnellIn Karen Sternheimer, Theory1 Comment

By Karen Sternheimer

I had a really cool social studies teacher in high school, and he taught a sociology class as an elective. I didn’t take it. Why?

It could have been the age-old “didn’t fit my schedule” or someone mentioned it was “hard.” I took his psychology class instead, maybe because I thought I knew something about psychology (I didn’t) or thought it might be easy (it wasn’t).

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Longboarding Towards Social Interactionism

On By econnellIn Popular Culture and Consumption, TheoryLeave a comment

By Joey Colby Bernert, Graduate Student, Michigan State University

The first time I fell off my longboard, I learned something about pain. The second time, when I got back up in front of all my friends, I learned something about performance. Longboarding, for me, has never only been about rolling downhill. It has been about meeting people, reading signals, and figuring out how to play a role in a scene.

This is where sociology comes in. Symbolic interactionism is the idea that people create meaning through everyday interactions. Gestures, objects, clothing, and language all matter. A nod from a stranger, a quick joke with someone you just met, or even how you take a fall can say more than words.

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Overtourism: Revisiting the Sacred and Profane

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Karen Sternheimer, TheoryLeave a comment

By Karen Sternheimer

You have probably seen news of protests in Europe about overtourism—locals upset about their hometowns being overrun with crowds, often pricing them out of local housing markets. Cities like Barcelona, Florence, Venice, and Paris have experienced problems with overwhelming summer crowds.

While the rebound after the COVID shutdowns of 2020 kept people from traveling for a year or more is part of the explanation, we can use our sociological imagination to think more deeply about why certain places draw crowds.

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Unwritten Rules: What to Say (and What Not to Say) to Someone Dealing with Loss

On By econnellIn Karen Sternheimer, Social Psychology, Theory1 Comment

By Karen Sternheimer

Many of our social interactions are guided by unwritten rules. But sometimes we don’t know what to say when someone experiences a profound loss, or the words others use in attempt to provide comfort can miss the mark.

Writing in the nineteenth century, sociologist Émile Durkheim described anomie as a breakdown of social rules during times of rapid change. While he was focused on macro-level changes, and how we communicate about loss is more micro-level, we can borrow his insights. After all, in the U.S. we tend to avoid talking about death and thus might not know how to do so even if we want to.

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Surreal or Hyperreal? Applying Theory to Disaster

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By Karen Sternheimer

How often do you use the word “surreal” to describe an unusual or otherwise mind-boggling experience? That’s the word that kept coming to mind when visiting the remains of my home for the first time two months after it burned down. The AI overview of the word “surreal” describes it as “strange, dreamlike, or unbelievable, often seeming detached from ordinary reality and evoking a sense of the uncanny or fantastic.” Yep, that’s the word.

It got me thinking about the differences—and similarities—between surreal and hyperreal—a concept central to postmodern theory which sociologists have sometimes used to critique traditional theoretical approaches. Can sociological theory help teach us about the meanings we make of disaster?

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Travel and Hyperreality

On By econnellIn Karen Sternheimer, Popular Culture and Consumption, Theory14 Comments

Karen sternheimer 72523By Karen Sternheimer

Do you follow any “travel influencers” on social media or even aspire to be one? Even if you’re not sure what a travel influencer actually is, they are shaping peoples’ experiences of travel.

A travel influencer is someone who posts travel-related content (typically videos and/or images) to social media accounts, hoping to gain a large number of followers, often in exchange for sponsorship money and ad revenue. They might be given free perks or get paid to share videos of resorts or other travel destinations as part of a new form of tourism marketing.

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Revisiting the Sacred and Profane: An Architectural Tour of European Cathedrals

On By econnellIn Karen Sternheimer, Social Institutions: Work, Education, and Medicine, TheoryLeave a comment

Karen sternheimer 72523By Karen Sternheimer

Popular travel host Rick Steves loves to visit cathedrals on his show to admire their art and architecture. And he’s not alone; on a recent trip to Europe, I found myself informally touring several cathedrals and houses of worship in France and Germany. Beyond appreciating the dramatic columns, striking stained glass, and sculptures that were often part of these edifices, I found myself thinking about the sociological implications of such spaces, namely Durkheim’s dichotomy between the “sacred” and “profane.”

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Challenging Stereotypes in Unscripted Love Tales: A Reality Check through Symbolic Interactionism

On By econnellIn Popular Culture and Consumption, Relationships, Marriage and Family, Social Psychology, Theory2 Comments

Monica-Radu Professional Headshot-2024By Dr. Monica Radu, Associate Professor of Sociology Department of Criminal Justice, Social Work, & Sociology, Southeast Missouri State University, mradu@semo.edu

The rise of reality TV has been nothing short of a cultural phenomenon, captivating audiences worldwide, including sociologists (like myself) who find themselves drawn to the intriguing social dynamics portrayed on these shows. So, what's the fuss all about? Why do sociologists, in particular, enjoy the reality TV craze?

Many reality shows serve as unintentional social experiments, placing individuals in unfamiliar and often challenging situations. Sociologists are keen to study how participants navigate these scenarios, unraveling insights into human decision-making, adaptation to change, and the impact of external pressures on behavior.

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