Herbert Blumer

Herbert Blumer
Born(1900-03-07)March 7, 1900
DiedApril 13, 1987(1987-04-13) (aged 87)
Spouses
Marguerite Barnett
(m. 1922)
Marcia Jackson
(m. 1943)
Children3
Academic background
EducationUniversity of Missouri (AB, MA)
University of Chicago (PhD)
InfluencesGeorge Herbert Mead, W. I. Thomas, Charles H. Cooley, Robert Park, Georg Simmel, John Dewey, Charles Ellwood
Academic work
School or traditionChicago School of Sociology
InstitutionsAmerican Sociological Association
University of Missouri
University of Chicago
University of California at Berkeley
Main interestsSociology, symbolic interactionism, sociological research methods
InfluencedErving Goffman, Anselm Strauss, Howard S. Becker, Tamotsu Shibutani

Herbert George Blumer (March 7, 1900 – April 13, 1987) was an American sociologist whose main scholarly interests were symbolic interactionism and methods of social research.[1] Believing that individuals create social reality through collective and individual action,[2] he was an avid interpreter and proponent of George Herbert Mead's social psychology, which he labeled symbolic interactionism.[3] Blumer elaborated and developed this line of thought in a series of articles, many of which were brought together in the book Symbolic Interactionism.[4] An ongoing theme throughout his work, he argued that the creation of social reality is a continuous process.[2] Blumer was also a vociferous critic of positivistic methodological ideas in sociology.[3][5][6]

  1. ^ Herbert Blumer (1969). Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. p. vii. ISBN 9780138799243.
  2. ^ a b Morrione, Thomas (Spring 1988). "Herbert G. Blumer (1900–1987): A Legacy of Concepts, Criticisms, and Contributions". Symbolic Interaction. 11, Special Issue on Herbert Blumer's Legacy (1): 1–12. doi:10.1525/si.1988.11.1.1.
  3. ^ a b Shibutani, Tamotsu (Spring 1988). "Blumer's Contributions to Twentieth-Century Sociology". Symbolic Interaction. 11 (1, Special Issue on Herbert Blumer's Legacy): 23–31. doi:10.1525/si.1988.11.1.23.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Mann was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ George Ritzer (1996). Classical Sociological Theory. McGraw Hill Companies. p. 59.
  6. ^ Martyn Hammersley (1989). The Dilemma of Qualitative Method: Herbert Blumer and the Chicago tradition. London: Routledge.