University of Applied Sciences, Fulda

Change, Adjustment, Becoming. The symbolic interaction perspective considers people as active agents, but quite different from the rational,

self- centred, autonomous, individual of 19^th century liberalism. People are actors or agents and the social world is an active one - with constant adjustment and organisation as essential features of social interaction. The self is created through such interaction , whereby it is not necessarily a fixed self, but one that is constantly adjusting to others. The concern is with how the self develops, how individual lives develop a biography, how social order is constantly being created, and how larger social forces emerge from these. For the symbolic interactionist, the world is an active one and society is this active social world.

Interaction. Interaction is not only concerned with individuals or society, but with the joint acts through which lives are organised and societies assembled. Actions are not individual actions which are rationally chosen or the ones which show the personal interpretations. Actions are always mutual response and adjustment of the actor and the others. Hence, the self is not only what the individual is, but it is built on the basis of how the others see it , on one hand and how the person responds to this view on the other hand.

Empiricism. Perhaps one of the main reasons that symbolic interaction has remained an important theoretical influence during

most of the twentieth century is its attention to what actually occurs as human interact. While the symbolic interaction perspective may seem to lack well-developed concepts, logical models, or theoretical rigour, it makes up for this by studying social interaction of actual people in the social world. Given that it concerns human interaction, which is something that any student of sociology is part of, the raw materials for a study of this interaction are available to anyone. At the same time the study requires careful observation, an ability to pay attention to detail, and a consideration of the accepted and routine. While it may be difficult to abstract from the perspective of each sociologist, empirical study must move beyond the prejudice and bias of the observer.