G. H. Mead and relational sociology

the case of concepts

Jean-François Côté

pp. 101-117

in: François Dépelteau (ed), The Palgrave handbook of relational sociology, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

George Herbert Mead's works serve as a reference for relational sociology for several authors. Yet the perspective adopted by those authors is often derived form Herbert Blumer's reading of Mead, which has been contested for decades even in the field of symbolic interactionism. This chapter examines the way Mead's works can be used in relational sociology, according to the relational content of the main concepts that he developed. It is argued that only from the point of view of the relational content of those concepts can Mead be of some help in defining relational sociology's project. While focusing on the ontogenetic and phylogenetic processes at work in social life, Mead's perspective proposed to locate the analysis on the symbols that are constitutive of both individuals and society, in their mutual and respective dialectical relations. If relational sociology can learn something from Mead's works, it is by using the concepts he developed in a proper fashion.

Cited authors

Mead George Herbert

Blumer Herbert