ABSTRACT
Even though the notion of ‘radical interactionism’ (RI) is perhaps not something most sociologists are yet familiar with, it is nevertheless one of the more recent and potent attempts to think beyond a conventional symbolic interactionist framework. This chapter is an invitation to RI as developed by Lonnie H. Athens. RI insists that society/social interaction should be studied by focusing on themes such as power, domination and conflict, which are, it is argued, ubiquitous aspects of everyday life. Moreover, RI insists that the roots of interactionism should be sought in the work of Robert E. Park rather than, as is often the case, predominantly in the ideas of George Herbert Mead and Herbert Blumer. The chapter starts by excavating the personal and academic development of Athens as a backdrop for understanding his development of RI. The chapter then outlines the early criminological ideas of Athens by looking particularly at his theory of ‘violentisation’. Following this, we look in some detail into the major intellectual ancestry and main ideas of RI and its opposition to ‘symbolic interactionism’, which leads us to consider the nature of domination and subjugation in everyday life as a central theme in RI. Based on this, some of the limitations, potentials and uses of RI are discussed before concluding that RI is indeed a valuable addition to the by now many different interactionisms around, however also that it hardly (at least not yet) testifies to a reorientation of interactionist sociology.
