{"id":4030,"date":"2016-04-26T20:31:40","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T02:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/?p=4030"},"modified":"2016-04-26T20:32:14","modified_gmt":"2016-04-27T02:32:14","slug":"so322-first-week-all-the-worlds-a-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/2016\/04\/26\/so322-first-week-all-the-worlds-a-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"SO322: First week\u2026 All the world\u2019s a stage!"},"content":{"rendered":"

New this year, CC\u2019s Sociology department has changed the way we take our theory courses for requirements. In Block II, I took the general Social Theory Class with Professor Deb Smith and then elected to focus on <\/span>Symbolic Interactionism<\/b> for my specialized theory. Following this, I\u2019ll take either Quantitative or Qualitative Methods and then write my thesis!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"image1\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Symbolic interactionism is one of the major theoretical frameworks of modern Sociology, and focuses largely on micro-interactions between people of all sorts. It\u2019s all about how we create meanings through interactions, and how, as Professor Vanessa Mu\u00f1oz\u2019s coffee cup quotes Charles Cooley, \u201cSelf and society are twin-born.\u201d As far as class goes this week, we\u2019ve read some philosophy regarding interactions: Mead\u2019s \u201cThe Self,\u201d Cooley\u2019s \u201cThe Looking-Glass Self,\u201d and Erving Goffman\u2019s \u201cThe Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.\u201d From this final book we read a good 100 pages overnight, and one of the main points Goffman made works to counter my title for this post: \u201cAll the world is not, of course, a stage, but the crucial ways in which it isn\u2019t are not easy to specify.\u201d In other words, we are all part of society that watches each other and assigns meanings to others\u2019 appearance and demeanor, even though we are not technically on a stage. See the awesome Zits cartoon below for a contemporary example.<\/p>\n

\"9812e72f7555f8e736c3bb7826889c56\"<\/p>\n

http:\/\/themetapicture.com\/page\/632\/<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to the philosophy aspect of class, we have a field component that will culminate in a final research paper. Let me explain: in addition to reading\/discussion, an ethnographic study done by student groups of five on a topic of choice is a large part of the syllabus. Ethnography is defined as <\/span>the scientific description of the customs of individual peoples and cultures. My group of five women has decided to study the interactions of medical professionals with the general public in neutral spaces, specifically the hospital cafeteria. We have been visiting Penrose Hospital recently and have only begun to observe patterns of interactions that hint to the world of the cafeteria being a stage. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Penrose-st.-francis\"<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.csbj.com\/tag\/penrose-st-francis\/<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, take the \u201ccostumes.\u201d White labcoats, patient gowns, stethoscopes, ID badges\u2026 All of the characters are identifiable by what they wear in this way. Their appearances affect how people interact with each other in the cafeteria; for example, we sit with those who are like us and give space to those that merit respect. As a student that plans to go to medical school in a couple of years, it\u2019s been interesting to start looking critically at the hierarchy of the hospital\u2026 Who are the doctors? Who cooks the food? What does it mean to be an RN versus a PA? What do subsets of employees talk about in their free time? <\/span><\/p>\n

Obviously I\u2019ve got a lot of questions about my ethnographic study, and I\u2019m told that this is normal. Hopefully, in another week, my team\u2019s observations will guide us to a specific research question and a theory – regardless of how blurry it is. Because Symbolic Interactionism works so neatly with ethnography – watching how people interact and create meanings is the way that we can more clearly theorize on dramaturgical interactions – I\u2019m happy to say that I have no doubts that this first week has just been the beginning! I\u2019m starting to see characters and costumes and stages instead of what I\u2019ve always seen as just plain life\u2026 I\u2019m thinking Goffman\u2019s thoughts are on point. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New this year, CC\u2019s Sociology department has changed the way we take our theory courses for requirements. In Block II, I took the general Social Theory Class with Professor Deb Smith and then elected to focus on Symbolic Interactionism for my specialized theory. Following this, I\u2019ll take either Quantitative or Qualitative Methods and then write … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “SO322: First week\u2026 All the world\u2019s a stage!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":880,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,282],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-block8","category-so322","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1RtXj-130","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/880"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4030"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4034,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4030\/revisions\/4034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}