Codes and Copresence: New Intersections of Cultural and Interactionist Sociologies

Interactionist and cultural sociologies have long lineages in the discipline, with classical work—Simmel and Durkheim in particular—still resonating strongly across both subfields in contemporary sociology. Harbouring a wide variety of well-developed theoretical approaches, interactionist and cultural sociologies both furnish sociologists with a range of concepts that travel far and wide across the discipline more broadly. Despite this, studies at their intersections are relatively rare.

Meaning is central to both, but they differ on where meaning is located. Interactionist sociologists centre intersubjective dimensions of social life, foregrounding how meanings are made in interaction. Cultural sociologists analyze more abstract cultural structures that make particular meanings available and intelligible in specific contexts. Meaning, then, is a good place to start in bringing these two subfields into closer conversation.

This session gathers scholars (1) developing empirical projects that centre meaning to highlight the mutual influence of culture and interaction upon one another, and/or (2) treating confluences and contradictions between these subfields as conceptually generative sites for theoretical innovation in meaning-centred sociology. We are especially keen to engage with theoretically ambitious, ethnographically grounded papers that push both subfields in new directions.