Assess the contribution of social action theories to our understanding of society

Symbolic interactionism forms the basis of social action theories, founded by the sociologist Mead. Mead saw society as built up by interactions between people that take place on the basis of meanings held by individuals. Here Mead makes an attempt to focus on the individual and the contextual basis of actions, avoiding the determinism many opposing theories often suffer. Blumer, next suggested that symbolic interactionism has three main features. Firstly people act in terms of symbols which mean something to the agent attached to the symbol. These develop out of interactions with different individuals and can change over time. Moreover these meanings arise from an interpretive process which Blumer argues is a result of an attempt to interpret meanings by taking the role of the other. To function as a society social action theorists therefore argue it is key to see ourselves as others see us to become conscious and aware of the ways others require us to act. For example , a smile is merely a contortion of the face but through interactions with each other we have learnt to symbolise this notion with the feeling of warmth and compassion. Consequently it is evident interactionist contributions are essential to become aware of these meanings, and function adequately in society, presenting a significance case for the importance of interactionist ideology in our understanding of society today. However it is important to note not all action may be seen as meaningful, such as routinely, unconscious notions which have little meaning for the agent, if this is so, symbolic interactionism therefore lacks the means to explain these meaningless actions.