Networks and Complexity: Directions for Interactionist Research?

In this article I consider the potential importance of social networks for symbolic interactionism. Specifically, I argue that symbolic interactionism operates with an underdeveloped and often tacit conception of networks; that network analysis offers us various tools for further developing and operationalizing this conception, empirically; and that doing so would be to our considerable advantage. In addition, I argue that a stronger focus on networks would give interactionism an inroad into important contemporary debates on “complexity,” building on an obvious but again underdeveloped affinity between these two academic domains. Moreover, tackling complexity raises important and central sociological concerns of structure/agency and micro/macro, with the additional payoff that interactionism can develop and demonstrate its strengths, as an approach, in addressing the problems often associated with these concerns.