Social Theory: SOCL/ANTH 302

Georg Simmel

Georg Simmel 1858-1918

Born: Berlin, Germany

Family:Business-orientedProsperousJewish

How is society possible?

Sociologists should focus on people in relationships

Society--Patterned interactions among members of a group

Everyday Life

Began with the elements ofeveryday life—playing games keeping secrets being a stranger forming friendships

Macro or Micro

Resisted reducing social behavior to individual personality

Social relationships not fully explained by larger collective patterns such as “the economy.”

Interaction orderEveryday interaction creates levels

of reality “Interaction order”

Never totally fixedAlways problematicCapable of change

Task of SociologySociety = A web of patterned

Interactions

Sociology’s TaskStudy formsforms of interactions

SociationSociety= Name for individuals

connected by interactions

Major field of study: Sociationociation

Patterns & Forms in which people associate and interact

Formal Sociology (Social Forms)

Forms of InteractionFor example:Study of warfare and Study of marriage

Qualitatively different subjects

Essentially similar interactive forms in martial conflict and in marital conflict

Formal Sociology (Social Forms)

Behavior displayed at Court of Louis XIV

At Offices of American corporations

Study forms of subordination and superordination Common patterns

Forms of Social InteractionSocial Processes

Conflict and Cooperation

Subordination and Superordination

Centralization and Decentralization

Georg Simmel: Social TypesSimmel constructed a gallery of social typessocial types to complement his inventory of social formssocial forms:The StrangerThe MediatorThe PoorThe AdventurerThe Man in the MiddleThe Renegade

Georg Simmel: Social Types

The typetype is created through relations with others who:Assign him a particular position Expect him to behave in specific

ways.

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. “

“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…

Social Types: The PoorOnce poor accept assistance

Removed from preconditions of previous statusPoverty as special statusAssign people to “poor” category

They are declassifiedPrivate trouble becomes a public

issue

The PoorThe poor come to be viewed not by

what they doBut 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

Georg Simmel: Social TypesThe stranger and the poor, and

Simmel’s other types Assigned their positions by specific

interactive relations

Societal creations Must act assigned roles

Georg Simmel: Dialectical Method

Sociationociation involves:Harmony and conflict Attraction and repulsion Love and hatred

Human relations characterized by ambivalence

Intimate relations not only positive but also negative sentiments

Georg Simmel: Dialectical Method

ConflictStrengthen existing bondsEstablish new ones Creative rather than destructive force

Georg Simmel: Significance of Numbers

One of most abstract characteristics of a group:

Number of participantsNumber of participants

Georg Simmel: Significance of Numbers

Dyad versus TriadDyadyadic 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

Georg Simmel: The Significance of Numbers for Social Life

Dyad -> TriadTriad One more element added brings major

qualitative change In triadtriad, as in all associations involving more

than two personsEach participant confront possibility of

being outvoted by majority

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

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:MediateRejoiceDivide and Rule

The Philosophy of Money

Economic exchange is formform of social interaction

When monetary transactions replaced barter

Changes in forms of interactions between social actors

The Philosophy of MoneyMoney is subject to:Precise division and manipulationPermits exact measurement of

equivalents

Impersonal in ways that objects of barter, like crafts and shells, can never be

The Philosophy of MoneyPromotes rational calculation in human

interactions

Increases rationalization in modern society

Replaces personal ties with impersonal relations Limited to specific purpose

The Philosophy of MoneyAbstract calculation invades areas

of social life such as:Kinship relations Esthetic (artistic) appreciation

Previously domain of qualitative rather than quantitative appraisals

Contributions to SociologyMicro sociologist--Small-group

research

Form rather than content of social interaction

Study of these interactions as primary task of sociology

Contributions to SociologyBegan 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