Interactionism

′Atkinson and Housley have produced a book that is a very competent, interesting and useful addition to other work in the field. Its distinctive contribution for me, lies in the exploration of the relationship between, and developments within interactionist sociologies′ - Sociology

What is symbolic interactionism? This refreshing and authoritative book provides readers with:

· A guide to the essential thinking, research and concepts in interactionism

· A demonstration of the use of the interactionist approach

· An explaination of why the interactionist influence has not been fully acknowledged in Britain.

The authors argue that few sociologists in Britain have identified themselves with symbolic interactionism, even though many have engaged with interactionist ideas in their research and methodological work. We are all interactionists now, in the sense that many of the key ideas of interactionism have become part of the mainstream of sociological thought. Currently fashionable approaches to sociology display a kind of collective amnesia. A good deal of today′s ideas that are presented as ′novel′ or ′innovative′ only appear so because earlier contributions - interactionism among them - are not explicitly acknowledged.

Paul Atkinson is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Cardiff University. Recent publications include For Ethnography (SAGE 2014) and Thinking Ethnographically (SAGE 2017). The fourth book in his quartet will be Crafting Ethnography, also for SAGE. The fourth edition of Hammersley and Atkinson Ethnography: Principles in Practice was published by Routledge in 2019. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and of the Learned Society of Wales. William Housley PhD, DSc.Econ. FAcSS is Professor of Sociology at Cardiff University. He is an internationally recognised expert in qualitative and social research methods, sociological theory, the study of practical reason, science and technology studies, ethnomethodology, membership categorization analysis, social interaction and digital sociology. His contribution to Sociology was confirmed through the award of a DSc Econ. by Cardiff University in 2012 for his internationally recognized work in the field of interaction, communication and social organization. He has served as an editor of Qualitative Research (SAGE) and the editorial board of Big Data and Society (SAGE). Professor Housley was awarded the prestigious Vincent Wright Chair, at Sciences Po, Paris, for 2017. He has published numerous papers and books, including Society in the Digital Age: An Interactionist Perspective (2021, SAGE).