Randall Collins

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Randall Collins (* 1941 ) is an American sociologist . Collins was president of the American Sociological Association from 2010 to 2011 . He has dealt intensively with interaction rituals.

Life

Randall Collins' father was in the foreign service. Therefore, Collins had to move often. The stays abroad and the associated experiences had a lasting influence on him. After the end of the Second World War the family stayed in Berlin, during the Cold War in Moscow and later in South America.

Collins observed a contrast between professional and personal behavior among diplomats. According to his own statements, this contrast motivated him to deal with the thoughts of the sociologist Erving Goffmann . He attributes his later interest in power-political references in the work of the sociologist Max Weber and in geopolitics to his perception of the conflicts with Korea .

As a teenager he attended prep school in New England. There the differences between the social classes became clear to him. He sees his sociological interest in the top social class in his experiences at boarding school.

Study and job

Collins received a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard College in 1963 , a Master of Arts in Psychology from Stanford University in 1964, and a Master of Arts in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1965 . There he received his doctorate in sociology in 1969. He worked there until 1977, first as an assistant professor, then as an associate professor.

From 1978 he was professor of sociology at the University of Virginia and later visiting professor at the University of Arizona , the University of California, Los Angeles , the University of Southern California , the University of California, Riverside , the University of Chicago and the Harvard University . In 1985 he was appointed professor at the University of California, Riverside. There he took over the chairmanship of the department of sociology in 1987. From 1997 he held Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania .

He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

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As a pioneer of sociological research on emotions, Collins focused on affective phenomena in society. Building on this, he develops his theory of interaction rituals . At the center of this theoretical approach is the concept of the dynamic, emotional energy of actors . On the one hand, this energy is the affective basis of social interactions. On the other hand, this energy captures socialization processes. Randall Collins uses a microsociological approach in his theory . The central question of the approach is what holds societies together as networks of unequal and conflicting groups, actors and organizations.

Collins takes on the perspectives of Émile Durkheim , Erving Goffman and Talcott Parsons . According to Collins, the basis for all three theorists is emotional dynamics. The diverse cultural symbols, social classifications and ideological systems are based on this emotional dynamic. In his study of religion, Durkheim defines rituals as a mechanism by which social solidarity in the form of emotions and symbolic object variations are generated and reproduced. According to Goffman, these rituals can also be performed against the individual. Within this microsociological approach, the actor develops a symbolic action. The actor unfolds this action in order to be confirmed and perceived by his environment.

Actors go through a variety of interaction rituals during their lives, which are therefore called chains. Elements of the interaction chain model according to Randall Collins are effects, moods and emotions of the actors involved. These effects, moods and emotions of the actors involved are influenced within an interaction situation and reproduced and generated by symbols. As Collins Systems variables, at least two actors must be involved in the interaction situation. On the one hand, these actors are limits to the inclusion or exclusion of actors. On the other hand, these actors have a common focus on one object. With this common focus on one object, the cultural similarity of the actors is determined. The more homogeneous the mood of the actors, the more intensely they will perceive the common ritual event. During the interaction situation, there is a positive or negative feeling towards the ritual experienced. The ritual leads to a kind of group solidarity in the further cycle. It brings an emotional charge with it. According to Collins, the common sense of solidarity stabilizes and fixes with the duration of the performance of the ritual. According to Randall Collins, an interaction ritual is a source of energy for lost social ties and future affective ties.

Symbols, on the other hand, are culturally and emotionally charged resources that exist between interaction rituals and the production of emotions. Membership symbols are e.g. B. possible topics of conversation, central cultural ideas or social manners. These membership symbols represent the generalized cultural capital according to Pierre Bourdieu . Particular cultural capital is the reference to specific persons, memories of names, habits, social positions or topics discussed.

The chains of interaction form an opportunity structure for interaction. These opportunity structures depend on spatial and temporal conditions as well as a feeling for various cultural resources. Collins calls this structure the market of interaction rituals . As of power and status rituals interactions by Collins are called in which actors Third animate a behavior that they otherwise would not be exercised. In power and status rituals, there would be emotional energy for a single actor. The emotional energy would therefore also be present if interactions are characterized by voluntary recognition and sympathy . According to Randall Collins, only positive emotion can be converted into emotional energy. In contrast, negative emotions lead to emotional emptiness. When going through the interaction rituals, the affected actors settle into a relatively stable level of emotional energy. Short-term feelings that occur during individual rituals, however, can in turn influence the long-term feeling.

The theory of interaction chains can also be viewed from a macro-sociological approach within conflict theory . Social and cultural differentiations of societies, which generate different interests among actors and in subsystems, can lead to manifest conflicts.

Reception in Germany

For a long time, Collins' more recent work was not received intensively in German-speaking sociology. Among other things, its proximity to scientific and mass psychological theoretical traditions has been criticized. Recently, however, there has been an increasing number of positive references, in which Collins also dealt with the criticism.

Literary

In the late 1970s, Collins wrote the short novel The Case of the Philosopher's Ring , which he himself described as being based on Sherlock Holmes.

Works

  • 2013: (with Immanuel Wallerstein et al.): Does Capitalism have a Future? , Oxford University Press.
    • (German translation by Thomas Laugstien 2014): Is capitalism dying? Five scenarios for the 21st century . Campus, Frankfurt / New York, ISBN 978-3-593-50176-5 .
  • Collins, R. (2011). Dynamics of violence: a microsociological theory. Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86854-230-1 .
  • Collins, R. (2010). Conflict Theory: Selected Writings. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-16925-5 .
  • Collins, R. (2008). Violence. A Micro-Sociological Theory. Princeton University Press.
  • Collins, R. (2004). Interaction ritual chains. Princeton university press.
  • Collins, R. (2000). The sociology of philosophies: A global theory of intellectual change. Harvard University Press.
  • Collins, R. (1981). On the microfoundations of macrosociology. American journal of sociology, 984-1014.
  • Collins, R. (1979). The credential society: An historical sociology of education and stratification (pp. 131-131). New York: Academic Press.
  • Collins, R., & Annett, J. (1975). Conflict sociology: Toward an explanatory science (p. 351). New York: Academic Press.
  • Collins, R. (1971). Functional and conflict theories of educational stratification. American Sociological Review, 1002-1019.

Awards

Collins has received numerous awards including:

  • 2002: Ludwik Fleck Prize for the best book for his work The Sociology of Philosophies , Society for Social Studies of Science
  • 2004: Scholarly Publication Award for his work Interaction Ritual Chains , Sociology of Emotions section of the American Sociological Association
  • 2004: Lifetime Achievement Award , Sociology of Emotions Section, American Sociological Association
  • 2008: Honorary doctorate from the University of Amsterdam
  • 2010 to 2011: Appointed President of the American Sociological Association

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Interview with Randall Collins by Alair Maclean and James Yocom. September 20, 2000, accessed February 19, 2011 .
  2. ↑ a b c Curriculum Vitae Randall Collins. (PDF; 124 kB) (No longer available online.) November 2010, archived from the original on May 31, 2012 ; Retrieved February 19, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / sociology.sas.upenn.edu
  3. ^ Book of Members
  4. ↑ http://zfs-online.org/index.php/zfs/article/viewFile/2991/2528 p. 27ff.
  5. ↑ Randall Collins: Theoretical Sociology. 1988. pp. 188-197.
  6. ↑ http://zfs-online.org/index.php/zfs/article/viewFile/2991/2528
  7. ^ Pettenkofer, Andreas (2006). The euphoria of the protest. Strong emotions in social movements. In Schützeichel, Rainer (Ed.), Emotions and Social Theory. Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 256 - 289.
  8. ^ Collins, Randall (2015). Bodily Interactions in Interaction Ritual Theory and Violence. An interview with Randall Collins. In Gugutzer, Robert / Staack, Michael (eds.), Body and Ritual. Social and cultural studies approaches and analyzes. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 245-259.

Web links

Wikibooks: Sociological Classics / Collins, Randall  - Learning and Teaching Materials
personal data
SURNAME Collins, Randall
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH 1941