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Simmel 1858-1918 |
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Just as the universe needs “love and hate,” that is attractive and repulsive forces, in order to have any form at all, so society, too, in order to attain a determinate shape, needs some quantitative ratio of harmony and disharmony, of association and competition, of favorable and unfavorable tendencies.
PERSONAL Georg’s financial future secure …allowed him to pursue intellectual interests w/o monetary worries. unable to obtain a permanent academic position throughout most of his career. wrote on a wide range of subjects that crossed disciplinary boundaries. Jewish, too 1914, at 56, Simmel was awarded a full professorship at Univ of Strausbourg. Simmel dies 4 years later (liver cancer). What Durkheim was to Sociology in France, Simmel was in Germany. Published 200+ articles & 30 books, some translated into 5 languages
nContrast
to the purely abstract view articulated within German
idealist philosophy.
nContrast
to the organic view developed by Comte, Spencer, and
Durkheim
nFrom
the latter, society is seen as having a reality outside or
independent of the existence of the interacting individuals
who compose it.
nFor
Simmel, the essence of society lies in the
interactions
that take place between individuals and
groups.
How did Simmel define society a “number of individuals connected by interaction. . . . It is not a ‘substance,’ nothing concrete, but an event: It is the function of receiving and affecting the fate and development of one individual by the other” (1917/1950:10,11). this is because large organizations and institutions are ...nothing but immediate interactions that . . . have become crystallized as permanent fields, as autonomous phenomena” Society is something individuals do as they influence, and are influenced by, each other. Society and the individuals who compose it are an interdependent duality: The existence of one presupposes the existence of the other. This duality has a profound effect on the nature of individuality. Who you are as an individual is defined and made possible by the groups to which you belong . . . And …preserving your individuality demands that your identity not be completely submerged into or engulfed by group membership. Otherwise, U have no self that you can call your own.
SOCIETY IS
a structure
which consists of
beings who stand inside and outside of it
at the same time. . .sociological phenomena, namely, that
between a society and its component individuals a
relation
may exist as if between two parties.
.
. . His emphasis is on the duality existing between society and the individual led him to define sociology as the study of social interaction or, as he called it, “sociation.” FORMS the main task of sociology, then, is to uncover the basic forms of interaction through which individuals pursue their interests or satisfy their desires.
Understanding
content
of interactions between e.g., employer –
employee —
what
they talk about and why—is
not
of central concern to sociologists.
What
is impt is that it is an exchange
neach is based on a reciprocal relationship of domination and subordination. n…of sociological significance, is
HOW TO UNDERSAND FORMS: nIn themselves, such motivations are not social; they are isolated psychological or biological impulses. nWhat is social, however, are the actions that we take in concert with others in order to fulfill our drives or realize our interests. INDIVIDUAL IN URBAN SOCIETY: Allow individuals to cultivate unique talents and interests ead to a “tragic” leveling of the human spirit. an individual’s total personality absorbed is not into a particular group or controlled by a leader as tribal life or feudal relations demanded. nmodern individual is not bound extensively to any specific person. -- SEE PICTURE IN BOOK OF INDIVIDUAL WITH ALL KINDS OF RELATIONSHIPS AROUND HER
EXCHANGE every interaction (a performance, a conversation, or a romantic affair) could be understood as an exchange form
nin
which each participant gives the other “more than he had
himself possessed”
nfoces
on the nature of
economic
exchange,
particularly as it relates to the creation of value.
nWhat
marks economic exchange is
sacrifice.
nthe
measure of
sacrifice
necessary to attain goods or goals is the source of their
economic value.
nValue
is subjective and relative: determined by the interaction;
actors weigh desire for goods against amount of sacrifice
required to attain them.
nValue
is created out of the “distance” that separates desire from
its satisfaction and the willingness to sacrifice something
in order to overcome that distance.
So far, know that he speaks of sociability, forms, and one form
is … size Overall - Sociations
1.Conflict
2.Sociability
3.The
Stranger
4.Fashion
5.Metropolis
– Metropole
1. CONFLICT- a unifying forces that make society possible an inevitable—and in many ways beneficial—feature of social life. The development of a sense of self & the creation of group unity depends on conflict, antagonism. The development of a sense of self & creation of group unity depends on conflict or antagonism. Conflict generates a clearer distinction between those who belong to a group & those who do not This breeds an intensified sense of group membership. Without having to overcome a common crisis or attain a common goal in the face of obstacles (i.e., w/o some measure of conflict), there would be no basis for: cooperation group feelings “harmony of interest”
nWe
do not always engage in interactions for strategic or
objective purposes.
nwe
can find ourselves interacting with others simply for the
sake of the connection itself.
nCall
this interaction “sociability,” or the “play-form of
association.”
nSociable
conversations have no significance or ulterior motive
outside the encounter itself.
nSociability
establishes an “artificial” world, a world without
friction or inequalities.
nAs
soon as the truthfulness of the conversation’s content
or the striving for personal rewards or goals is made
the focus, the encounter loses its playfulness.
nA
kind of sociability that epitomizes the
duality of social life is
flirtation
or
coquetry.
nFlirtation
is erotic playfulness in which an actor continuously
alters between consent and denial.
nShould
a final decision be revealed -
resolving the tension between consent
and denial
- the “play” is over.
3. The Stranger
njuxtaposed
his analysis of the forms of social interaction with a
discussion of social
types.
nSocial
types derive not from qualities intrinsic to the
individual, nor from an individual’s
choice
to be one “type” or another.
nRather,
being assigned or identified as a type of individual is
a product of one’s
relationship
to others.
nThe
relationship of “the stranger” to the group is
rooted in a unique synthesis of opposites:
“wandering” and “attachment.”
nNear
(share) and distant – at the same time!
n…
it is the mobility of the stranger within a
group that makes the position a “synthesis of
nearness and remoteness.”
n…
the unique, unattached relation of the
stranger to the larger group allows the
stranger to adopt an
objective
attitude toward internal conflicts.
4. Fashion
n…
an aspect of modern social life built upon the duality
of individuation and group membership.
n…an
expression of individualization & differentiation PLUS
an expression of imitation and conformity.
nSimply
put, fashions remain fashionable only to the extent
that the general population does not adopt them. For
once fashions become widely disseminated and take on
an air of permanence, they become a common fact of
life.
…demands that it should be exercised at one time only by a portion of the given group, the great majority merely being on the road to adopting it. As soon as . . . anything that was originally done only by few has really come to be practiced by all . . . we no longer speak of fashion. As fashion spreads, it gradually goes to its doom.
nUpper
classes within a society attempt to distance
themselves from the lower classes. Fashion is a
visible and easily identifiable sign of class
position, making it a domain well suited for
publicly demonstrating one’s place in the class
hierarchy.
nHowever, as the lower classes set out to imitate those above them in the “externals of life,” the upper classes necessarily must seek out an alternative form of fashion in order to retain and express their distinctiveness. 5. Metropolis The intensity of stimuli created by the urban environment and its consequences for the psychology of the city dweller. Unlike the slower tempo and rhythms of small town life and the emotional bonds that tie its inhabitants together, the metropolitan person is bombarded with sensory impressions that lead him to adopt, out of necessity, an intellectualized approach to life. allow individuals to cultivate unique talents and interests lead to a “tragic” leveling of the human spirit. an individual’s total personality absorbed is not into a particular group or controlled by a leader as tribal life or feudal relations demanded. modern individual is not bound extensively to any specific person. ...to protect oneself against this onslaught of stimuli and “disruptions,” the individual must avoid developing an emotional investment in the happenings and encounters that make up his daily life.
As
a result, the metropolitan person adopts a
blasé attitude,
a psychological device that protects the individual from
becoming overwhelmed by the intensity of city life. This
... is essentially a form of “shutting down,” an
emotional “graying” of reactions.
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