Orphans Other Deadends in the History of Sociology: Symbolic Interactionism and the Mid-20th Century American Compromise

To conceptualize deadends in the history of sociology, we examine how intellectual lineages, networks and institutional histories have been narrated in U.S. sociology. Introductory sociology textbooks are strategic research sites because they are a space where sub-disciplines, academic institutions, curriculum, individual intellectuals, and market dynamics intersect. Examining textbook narratives of the discipline, we ask: What has been narrated as central? What has been omitted and why? On this basis, we identify symbolic interactionism as an orphan – a casualty of the mid-20^th century standoffs in the United States between what came to be known as the consensus, conflict, and symbolic interactionism perspectives. The three-fold model of US theory remains a central feature of Introductory sociology textbooks today, a fact which explains the isolation of symbolic interactionism from the power centers of disciplinary sociology.