Social Theory:

SOCL/ANTH 302

Georg Simmel
 Georg Simmel 1858-1918

Born: Berlin, Germany

Family:
Business-oriented
Prosperous
Jewish
 How is society possible?

Sociologists should focus on

people in relationships

Society--Patterned
interactions
among members of a group
 Everyday Life

Began with the elements of

everyday life
playing games
keeping secrets
being a stranger
forming friendships
 Macro or Micro

Resisted reducing social behavior to

individual personality

Social relationships not fully explained

by larger collective patterns such as
the economy.
 Interaction order
Everyday interaction creates levels
of reality
Interaction order

Nevertotally fixed
Always problematic
Capable of change
 Task of Sociology
Society = A web of patterned
Interactions

Sociologys Task
Study forms of interactions
 Sociation
Society= Name for individuals
connected by interactions

Major field of study: Sociation

Patterns & Forms in which people

associate and interact
 Formal Sociology
(Social Forms)
Forms of Interaction
For example:
Study of warfare and Study of marriage
Qualitatively different subjects

Essentiallysimilar interactive
forms in martial conflict and in marital
conflict
 Formal Sociology
(Social Forms)
Behavior displayed at Court of Louis
XIV
At Offices of American corporations

Study forms of subordination and

superordination
Common patterns
 Forms of Social Interaction
Social Processes

Conflict and Cooperation

Subordination and Superordination

Centralization and Decentralization

 Georg Simmel: Social Types
Simmel constructed a gallery of social types to
complement his inventory of social forms:
The Stranger
The Mediator
The Poor
The Adventurer
The Man in the Middle
The Renegade
 Georg Simmel: Social Types

The type is created through

relations with others who:
Assign him a particular position
Expect him to behave in specific
ways.
 Social Types: The stranger
Isnot just a wanderer
who comes today and goes tomorrow,
having no specific structural position.

He is a person who comes today & stays

tomorrow
He is fixed within a particular spatial group
but his positionis determinedby the fact that
he does not belong to it from the beginning,
and that he may leave again.

The stranger is an element of the group itself

While not being fully part of it.

 The Stranger
He therefore is assigned a role that no other
members of the group can play.
By virtue of his partial involvement in group
affairs he can attain an objectivity that other
members cannot reach
Moreover, being distant and near at the same
time, the stranger will often be called upon as
a confidante
the stranger may be a better judge between
conflicting parties than full members of the
group since he is not tied to either of the
contenders
 Social Types: The Poor
Once poor accept assistance
Removed from preconditions of
previous status
Poverty as special status
Assign people to poor category

They are declassified

Private trouble becomes a public
issue
 The Poor
The poor come to be viewed not by
what they do
But what is done to them

Societycreates social type of the poor

Assigns them a peculiar status that is
marked only by negative attributes
By what the status-holders do not have
 Georg Simmel: Social Types
Thestranger and the poor, and
Simmels other types
Assigned their positions by specific
interactive relations

Societal creations
Must act assigned roles
 Georg Simmel:
Dialectical Method
Sociation involves:
Harmony and conflict
Attraction and repulsion
Love and hatred

Human relations characterized by

ambivalence
Intimaterelations not only positive but
also negative sentiments
 Georg Simmel:
Dialectical Method

Conflict
Strengthen existing bonds
Establish new ones
Creative rather than destructive force
 Georg Simmel:
Significance of Numbers

One of most abstract characteristics of

a group:

Number of participants
 Georg Simmel:
Significance of Numbers
Dyad versus Triad
Dyadic relationship differs qualitatively from
other types of groups

1.Two participants confronted by only one

other

2. Dyad depends on each element

Elements=people, groups, countries
 Georg Simmel:
The Significance of Numbers for Social Life

Dyad -> Triad

One more element added brings major
qualitative change
In
triad, as in all associations involving more
than two persons
Eachparticipant confront possibility of
being outvoted by majority
 Georg Simmel:
The Significance of Numbers for Social Life
Triad is simplest structure in which group
achieves domination over component
members
Social framework for constraining individual
participants for collective purposes

Triad=Characteristics of all social life:

Freedom and constraint
Autonomy and heteronomy
 Georg Simmel:
The Significance of Numbers for Social Life

Third member enters dyad,

Processes become possible that
previously could not take place

A third member may:

Mediate
Rejoice
Divide and Rule
 The Philosophy of Money

Economic exchange is form of social

interaction
When monetary transactions replaced
barter
Changes in forms of interactions
between social actors
 The Philosophy of Money
Money is subject to:
Precise division and manipulation
Permits exact measurement of
equivalents

Impersonal in ways that objects of

barter, like crafts and shells, can never
be
 The Philosophy of Money
Promotes rational calculation in human
interactions

Increases rationalization in modern

society

Replaces personal ties with impersonal

relations
Limited to specific purpose
 The Philosophy of Money
Abstract calculation invades areas
of social life such as:
Kinship relations
Esthetic (artistic) appreciation

Previously domain of qualitative

rather than quantitative appraisals
 Contributions to Sociology
Micro sociologist--Small-group
research

Form rather than content of social

interaction

Study of these interactions as primary

task of sociology
 Contributions to Sociology
Began inquiries from micro (individual)
Observing smallest social interactions

Tosee how institutions (macro)

emerged from them

Differs
from other classic writers--
Simmel returns to the individual