A Theory of Social Interaction.

This book provides an analysis of the fundamental problem areas of social science. Jonathan Turner concentrates on the relation between micro and macro analyses in the understanding of social interaction. A range of theories of interaction - including those by G.H. Mead, Alfred Schutz, Erving Goffman, Harold Garfinkel and Jurgen Habermas - are subjected to critical analysis. Turner gives an analysis to those areas covered half a century ago by Talcott Parsons in his celebrated The Structure of Social Action. Turner believes, with Parsons, that there are invariant and universal properties of the social universe which can be understood in an analytical fashion. His portrayal of these dimensions, however, diverges fundamentally from that of Parsons and incorporates ideas drawn from contemporary debates in social theory.