Interaction Ritual Chains

by Randall Collins

Sex, smoking, and social stratification are three very different social phenomena. And yet, argues sociologist Randall Collins, they and much else in our social lives are driven by a common force: interaction rituals. Interaction Ritual Chains is a major work of sociological theory that attempts to develop a “radical microsociology.” It proposes that successful rituals create symbols of group membership and pump up individuals with emotional energy, while failed rituals drain emotional energy. Each person flows from situation to situation, drawn to those interactions where their cultural capital gives them the best emotional energy payoff. Thinking, too, can be explained by the internalization of conversations within the flow of situations; individual selves are thoroughly and continually social, constructed from the outside in.

The first half of Interaction Ritual Chains is based on the classic analyses of Durkheim, Mead, and Goffman and draws on micro-sociological research on conversation, bodily rhythms, emotions, and intellectual creativity. The second half discusses how such activities as sex, smoking, and social stratification are shaped by interaction ritual chains. For example, the book addresses the emotional and symbolic nature of sexual exchanges of all sorts — from hand-holding to masturbation to sexual relationships with prostitutes — while describing the interaction rituals they involve. This book will appeal not only to psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists, but to those in fields as diverse as human sexuality, religious studies, and literary theory.

Genres: Sociology, Nonfiction, Psychology, Social Science, Politics, Social, Research

464 pages, Paperback

First published March 21, 2004

About the author

Dr. Randall Collins is an American sociologist who has been influential in both his teaching and writing. He has taught in many notable universities around the world and his academic works have been translated into various languages. Collins is currently Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a leading contemporary social theorist whose areas of expertise include the macro-historical sociology of political and economic change; micro-sociology, including face-to-face interaction;and the sociology of intellectuals and social conflict. He has devoted much of his career and research to study society, how is it created and destroyed through emotional behaviors of human beings. He is considered to be one of the leading non-Marxist conflict theorists in the United States, and served as the president of the American Sociological Association from 2010 to 2011.

Dr. Collins' first position in academia was at UC Berkeley, followed by many other universities including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, followed by the UC San Diego, the University of Virginia, then UC Riverside, and finally the University of Pennsylvania. He took intermittent breaks from academia, as a novelist, and as a freelance scholar. He has also been a visiting professor at Chicago, Harvard, and Cambridge, as well as various schools in Europe, Japan, and China. Collins has published almost one hundred articles since finishing his undergraduate education. He has also written and contributed to several books with a range of topics such as the discovery of society to the sociology of marriage and family life.

Dr. Collins grew up in a slew of different cities and countries, his father being a diplomat (and possible spy) with the US State Department during the Cold War. They lived in Germany immediately following World War II, and later in Moscow, among other places such as Uruguay.

Reviews

[Fred R · Rating 5 out of 5]

For my money Collins is the best working sociologist. I think at times he overestimates the powers of social construction, but that's minor carping. As with any Collins book, this one gives you a powerful sociological model, which will order and make sense of a great swathe of life, as well as numerous fascinating investigations of whatever happened to catch Collins' eye when developing or ruminating upon that model.

We are inspired when we find ourselves attentive and responding to objects that have similarly captured our neighbor's attention. This inspiration is emotional energy, and it powers human behavior. Emotional energy is built up through repeated interaction rituals, which can energize symbols or proxies to store this energy.

[Andrew Marr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was interested in reading this book because of my interest in the thought of René Girard & his understanding of group processes, especially scapegoating behavior. His data in his book "Violence" was really helpful. My interest was also raised because, as a Benedictine monk, ritual is an important part of life & I am interested in how ritual works out in daily life as well as in church ritual. I found Collins interesting and helpful. He identifies himself as a follower of Durkheim & his discussion of Durkheim were quite informative. He helped me see what Girard gained from Durkheim even though he arrived at some different conclusions. The discussion of specific issues to illustrate his points were informative although his long discussion of smoking left me with some mixed feelings. This is a personal matter for me because I have suffered much serious discomfort from other peoples' tobacco smoke which has nothing to do with prudery. At times Collins seemed to slam people like me who felt the need to push back, almost as a need for survival. On the other hands, Collins's analysis of the phenomenon offers much perspective in the social process, especially showing how the stronger, more rational arguments were not as decisive as one might think but that irrational factors were more decisive in how it all panned out. An important book & should be of interest to people like me who work with Girard's thinking.

[versarbre]

A good contemporary sociological attempt to operationalize ritual studies. I just read the introduction chapter that partially reconstructs an intellectual genealogy from Durkheim to Goffman. The photos are well-chosen illustrations that captured the contemporary ritual moments vividly. However, I couldn't help finding the narrative too boring probably due to my own impatience to sociologists who are more interested in their own general theory-construction than interpreting provocative historical moments. Goffman's Forms of Talk - or even Asylum-- somehow is much more engaging than Collins' attempt. Why? Is it because Goffman is interested in revealing the dynamic of paradigmatic situations per see rather than seeking to construct a general theory? (Obviously, the term "model" that Collins's fond of using doesn't appear so much in Goffman's works.)

[Jocelyn Simmons · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the love of all that is sacred, DO NOT follow Collins’s example of dense academic writing. We need more academics who can write in language that humans can actually read. If this wasn't required reading, I would have skipped it entirely.

[Julia Andersson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Used this book in writing my thesis in Sociology, I think its amazing.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thorough and brilliantly reasoned extension to Goffman's theory of interaction rituals (and underpins one of the leading violence theories available).

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Randall Collins in this book presents the notion of an "interaction ritual chain". He considers IR chains to be "a model of motivation that pulls and pushes individuals from situation to situation, steered by the market-like patterns of how each participant's stock of social resources --their emotional energy and their membership symbols (or cultural capital) accumulated in previous IRs - meshes with those of each person they encounter".

In this sense, it is a solid argument for the location of the individual self within social action, that manages to have a high view of agency. He believes individuals seek this "emotional energy", which is created ritually. He states, "I would prefer to describe [the] energy appearing in human bodies and emotions [as] the intensity and focus of human consciousness, [arising] in interactions in local, face-to-face situations, or as precipitates of chains of situations" (p6).

In this way, emotion and practice are linked. This creates a very interesting foundation from which to examine the rituals of sex, smoking and also of introversion.

This book may not be considered savoury to some conservative audiences. But, as I was required to read it by a tutor, I didn't feel I had the right to moralize it, simply to understand the arguments.

[Rhiannon Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A long but rich book with clear explanations and examples of his theory.

[Julio César · Rating 5 out of 5]

Si querés leer un excelente libro de teoría sociológica de 500 páginas, adelante con Cadenas de rituales de interacción. El autor apuesta por una "microsociología radical" de los rituales de interacción y sostiene que todos los aspectos de la vida social se pueden comprender en términos de ellos. Los seres humanos buscamos "energía emocional", y los RI que más nos la provean son los que repetiremos y añoraremos.
La segunda parte tiene "Aplicaciones", en la cual toma cuatro objetos empíricos: el sexo, la estratificación, los movimientos anti-tabaco y las personalidades introvertidas.
Un libro en cierto sentido pesado, como todo libro de teoría, pero muy ameno y escrito en clave laid back. Randall Collins prueba una vez más ser de los más importantes sociólogos de la actualidad, un tipo que, como todos los grandes, transmite a quien lo lee una incontrastable pasión por la investigación científica.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I devoured this one in an afternoon, but I'm a nerd. This is probably not the book to read if you're unfamiliar with the field, but if you have some background, his work on microsociology is marvelous.

[Michelle Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the few paradigm-shifting books I have read. Collins’s ideas are extremely intuitive and apply to macro and micro levels equally nicely. Once I read this, I couldn’t “unsee” interaction ritual chains everywhere I looked.