Presidential Address: Interactionism and the Study of Social Organization

Abstract

This article presents a set of six analytic categories—collective activity, network, conventions-practices, resources, processuality-temporality, and grounding—collectively as a paradigm for studying social organization. A review of recent interactionist scholarship generated these categories. The article focuses on the meso domain, where situated activity, history, and structure converge. Some theoretical, methodological, and substantive implications are suggested.