Toward a radical interactionist account of science
Radical Interactionism on the Rise
ISBN: 978-1-78190-784-9, eISBN: 978-1-78190-785-6
Publication date: 16 October 2013
Abstract
George Herbert Mead developed a sophisticated social and pragmatist model of science, which has escaped the attention of most modern-day scholars and symbolic interactionists. While Mead’s insights have much to offer to contemporary interactionist studies of science and technology, they are not without their shortcomings. In his analyses, Mead tends to put most of his emphasis on the concrete micro-foundations of knowledge production and the functional necessity of science as a problem-solving institution par excellence, yet he fails to seriously question the role of power and domination within the competitive terrain of scientific fields. Lonnie Athens has attempted to reconstitute the basic assumptions of symbolic interactionism by insisting that domination, rather than mere sociality, is the foundation of human existence, since the root of all social acts are comprised of super- and subordinate relations. Changing our fundamental assumptions about social action thus forces us to ask new questions about the micro- and macro-processes we explore in our research. By applying this radicalized lens to Mead’s view of science, I attempt to forge a new interactionist approach, which would better connect with and contribute to the critical wing of the science studies tradition.
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Lonnie Athens for his encouragement and excellent critical commentary, Neil McLaughlin and David Nock for their thoughtful suggestions, and Irene Pugliese for her helpful editorial corrections.
Citation
Puddephatt, A.J. (2013), "Toward a radical interactionist account of science", Radical Interactionism on the Rise (Studies in Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 41), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 53-82. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0163-2396(2013)0000041007
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013 Emerald Group Publishing Limited