The future of symbolic interaction, peaking, and collapsing the matrix

Abstract

Symbolic interaction may not have much of a future. Rome is burning; the Titanic is sinking; and still the band plays on. With some notable exceptions, we symbolic interactionists, as a group, appear to be sitting around, paralyzed, watching events unfold from the dizzying heights of our ivory tower, grumbling under our collective breath about how bad things are, but not yet doing enough, much like the rest of the world.You take the blue pill; the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. (Morpheus from The Matrix)

Citation

Rambo, C. and Grier, T. (2008), "The future of symbolic interaction, peaking, and collapsing the matrix", Denzin, N.K., Salvo, J. and Washington, M. (Ed.) Studies in Symbolic Interaction (Studies in Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 32), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 37-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-2396(08)32004-3