Face to Face

Description

Publisher Description (unedited publisher data) Drawing on and updating classic sociological theory, and with special reference to the most recent research in evolutionary and neurophysiological theory, this work presents a unified, general theory of what happens when people interact. Despite modern technologies that mediate communication among individuals, face-to-face interaction is still primary. This book argues against recent social theory that postulates a dramatic change in the nature of human relationships under postmodernity and asserts that, despite undeniable and accelerating change in people's environments, certain basic human tendencies toward emotionally inflected, physically present social interaction remain strong. Turner builds on first principles he locates in the work of Mead, Freud, Schutz, Durkheim, and Goffman. After brief overviews of previous work on the embeddedness of social interaction in sociocultural systems and in human biology, each chapter presents elements of the microdynamics involved in encounters: emotions, motivations (transactional needs), culture (normative conventions), role processes, status, demographics, and ecology. Library of Congress subject headings for this publication: Interpersonal relations.

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