Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Mead, Contemporary Metatheory, and Twenty-First-Century Interdisciplinary Team Work

  • Published:
Sociological Practice

Abstract

George Herbert Mead is reintroduced here as an exemplary practice-minded scholar. His work at Hull-House inspired practitioners to interpret and advocate for the poor and oppressed. Mead pioneered an approach to cross-cultural boundary work that was used to help clients interpret their experiences, to mediate between clients and social institutions, and to represent clients' needs to a nonsympathetic middle class. Contemporary sociological practice occurs in a fragmented, divisive society reminiscent of late nineteenth-century Chicago. Mead's notions of “universe of discourse,” “international mindedness,” and “the democratic assumption” are wedded to those of metatheorists and developed as a “metatheory for use.” Four metatheoretical tools—translation by membership focus, by metaphor, by map, and by model—are recommended to sociologists committed to interdisciplinary, multitheory service.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • abbott, Andrew. 1995. “Boundaries of Social Work or Social Work of Boundaries?” Social Service Review 69(4):545-562.

    Google Scholar 

  • Addams, Jane. 2002. “The Settlement as a Factor in the Labor Movement.” Pp. 46-61 in The Jane Addams Reader, edited by Jean Bethke Elshtain. New York: Basic Books. (Originally Published in 1895).

    Google Scholar 

  • Addams, Jane. 1990. Twenty-Years at Hull-House With Autobiographical Notes. Urbana: in University of Illinois Press. (Originally Published in 1910).

    Google Scholar 

  • Alexander, Jeffrey and Paul Colomy. 1992. “Traditions and Competition: Preface to a Post-positivist Approach to Knowledge Cumulation.” Pp. 27-52 in Metatheorizing, edited by George Ritzer. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barry, Robert. 1968. “A Man and a City: George Herbert Mead in Chicago.” Pp. 173-192 in American Philosophy and the Future: Essays for a New Generation, edited by Michael Novak. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bentz, Valerie and Jeremy J. Shapiro. 1998. Mindful Inquiry in Social Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohman, James. 1999. “Theories, Practices, and Pluralism: A Pragmatic Interpretation of Critical Social Science.” Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 29(4):459-480.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boss, Pauline. 1999. Ambiguous Loss: Learning to Live With Unresolved Grief. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, Richard Harvey. 1992. “Science and Society as Discourse: Toward a Sociology of Civic Competence.” Pp. 223-243 in Postmodernism and Social Theory: The Debate Over General Theory, edited by Steven Seidman and David G. Wagner. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruhn, John and Howard Rebach. 1996. Clinical Sociology: An Agenda for Action. New York: Plenum Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calhoun, Craig. 1996. “Social Theory and the Public Sphere.” Pp. 429-470 in The Blackwell Companion to Social Theory, edited by Craig Calhoun. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, Elizabeth. 1990. “The Development of Contemporary Clinical Sociology.” Clinical Sociology Review 8:110-115.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crane, Diana. 1972. Invisible Colleges: Diffusion of Knowledge in Scientific Communities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cronen, Vernon, Victoria Chen, and W. Barnett Pearce. 1988. “Coordinated Management of Meaning: A Critical Theory.” Pp. 66-98 in Theories in Intercultural Communication, edited by Young Yun Kim and William Gudykunst. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dankoski, Mary, Christie Penn, Thomas Carlson, and Lorna Hecker. 1998. “What's in a Name? A Study of Family Therapists Use and Acceptance of the Feminist Perspective.” American Journal of Family Therapy 26(1):95-104.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deegan, Mary Jo. 1988. Jane Addams and the Men of the Chicago School, 1892–1918. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deegan, Mary Jo. 1989. “Sociology and Conviviality: A Conversation With Ellenhorn on Convivial Sociology.” Humanity and Society 13(1):85-88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deegan, Mary Jo. 1992. “The Genesis of the International Self: Working Hypotheses Emerging From the Chicago Experience (1892–1918).” Pp. 339-353 in Non-European Youth and the Process of Integration, edited by Luigi Tomasi. Trento, Italy: University of Trento.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dewey, John, and Arthur F. Bentley. 1949. Knowing and the Known. Boston: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Emirbayer, Mustafa. 1997. “Manifesto for a Relational Sociology.” American Journal of Sociology 103(2):281-317.

    Google Scholar 

  • Falck, Hans. 1988. Social Work: The Membership Perspective. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feffer, Andrew. 1993. The Chicago Pragmatists and American Progressivism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Forte, James. 2001. Theories for Practice: Symbolic Interactionist Translations. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glassner, Barry and Jonathan A. Freedman. 1979. Clinical Sociology. New York: Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartman, Ann and Joan Laird. 1983. Family-Centered Social Work Practice. New York: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson. 1980. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Larson, Dale. 1980. “Therapeutic Schools, Styles, and Schoolism: A National Survey.” Journal of Humanistic Psychology 20(3):3-20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levine, Donald. 1995. Visions of the Sociological Tradition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Light, Andrew. 1996. “Compatabilism in Political Ecology.” Pp. 161-184 in Environmental Pragmatism, edited by Andrew Light and Eric Katz. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Light, Andrew. 1997. “Materialists, Ontologists, and Environmental Pragmatists.” Pp. 255-269 in The Ecological Community: Environmental Challenges for Philosophy, Politics, and Morality, edited by Roger Gottlieb. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mackey, Richard, Mitchell Burek, and Susan Charkoudian. 1987. “The Relationship of Theory to Clinical Practice.” Clinical Social Work Journal 15(4):368-383.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mead, George Herbert. 1918. “Social Work, Standards of Living and the War.” Proceedings of the National Conference of Social Work, 637-644. Retrieved on October 3, 2000, from http://paradigm.soci.brocku.ca/∼lward/pubs/MEAD082.html

  • Mead, George Herbert. 1968. “The Working Hypothesis in Social Reform.” Pp. 125-129 in George Herbert Mead: Essays on His Social Philosophy, edited by John Petras. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill. (Originally Published in 1899).

    Google Scholar 

  • Mead, George Herbert. 1907. Review of The Newer Ideals of Peace, by Jane Addams. American Journal of Sociology, 13:121-128.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mead, George Herbert. 1907–1908. “The Social Settlement: Its Basis and Function.” University of Chicago Record, 12:108-110. Retrieved on October 3, 2002, from http://paradigm.soci.brocku.ca/ ∼ lward/pubs/MEAD 084.html

    Google Scholar 

  • Mead, George Herbert. 1964a. “The Psychology of Punitive Justice.” Pp. 130-150 in George Herbert Mead: Essays on His Social Philosophy, edited by John Petras. New York: Teachers College Press. (Originally Published in 1918).

    Google Scholar 

  • Mead, George Herbert. 1964b. “National-Mindedness and International-Mindedness.” Pp. 355-370 in Selected Writings: George Herbert Mead, edited by Andrew Reck. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Originally Published in 1929).

    Google Scholar 

  • Mead, George Herbert. 1964c. “Philanthropy from the Point of View of Ethics.” Pp. 392-407 in George Herbert Mead: Selected Writings, edited by Andrew Reck: Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Originally Published in 1930).

    Google Scholar 

  • Mead, George Herbert. 1999. “The Function and Role of the Social Settlement.” Pp. 64-75 in Play, School, and Society by George Herbert Mead, edited by Mary Jo Deegan. New York: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perlstadt, Harry. 1998. “Comment on Turner.” Sociological Perspectives 41(2):268-271.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ritzer, George. 1991. Metatheorizing in Sociology. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rorty, Richard. 1989. Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross, Dorothy. 1998. “Gendered Social Knowledge: Domestic Discourse, Jane Addams, and the Possibilities of Social Science.” Pp. 235-264 in Gender and American Social Science: The Formative Years, edited by Helene Silverberg. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saltman, Joan Ephross, and Roberta Greene. 1993. “Social Workers' Perceived Knowledge and Use of Human Behavior Theory.” Journal of Social Work Education 29(1):88-98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sammons, Morgan, and Melvin Gravitz. 1990. “Theoretical Orientations of Professional Psychologists and Their Former Professors.” Professional Psychology: Research and Practice 21(2):131-134.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheff, Thomas. 1995. “Academic Gangs.” Crime, Law, and Social Change. 23:157-162.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seidman, Steven. 1996. “Pragmatism and Sociology: A Response to Clough, Denzin and Richardson.” Sociological Quarterly 37(4):753-759.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shalin, Dmitri. 1987. “Socialism, Democracy and Reform: A Letter and an Article by George H. Mead.” Symbolic Interaction 10(2):267-278.

    Google Scholar 

  • Siporin, Max. 1989. “Metamodels, Models, and Basics: AnEssay Review.” Social Service Review 63(3):474-480.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, T. V. 1931. “Social Philosophy of George Herbert Mead.” American Journal of Sociology, 37:368-385.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strauss, Anselm. 1977. “Sociological Theories of Personality.” Pp. 277-302 in Current Personality Theories, edited by R. J. Corsini. Itasca, IL: F. E. Peacock.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, Stephen. 1980. Sociological Explanation as Translation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson, Walter. 1985. The Architectonics of Meaning: Foundations of the New Pluralism. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weigert, Andrew and Viktor Gecas. 1995. “Multiplicity and Dialogue in Social Psychology: An Essay in Metatheorizing.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 25(2):141-174.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weinstein, Jay. 2000. “(Another) Comment on the Differences between Applied and Academic Sociology.” Pp. 577-604 in Self-Analytical Sociology: Essays and Explorations in the Reflexive Mode, edited by Larry Reynolds. Rockport, TX: Magner.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wichman, Scott, M. Harry Daniels, Lyle J. White, and Steven Fesmire. 1990. “A 'Primer' in Conceptual Metaphor for Counselors.” Journal of Counseling and Development 77:389-394.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wirth, Louis. 1931. “Clinical Sociology.” American Journal of Sociology 37:49-66.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhao, Shanyang. 2001. “Metatheorizing in Sociology.” Pp. 386-394 in Handbook of Social Theory, edited by George Ritzer and Barry Smart. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology, Social Work Program, Newport University, 1 University Place, Newport News, Virginia, 23606

    James A. Forte

Authors
  1. James A. Forte
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Forte, J.A. Mead, Contemporary Metatheory, and Twenty-First-Century Interdisciplinary Team Work. Sociological Practice 4, 315–334 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020851011396

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020851011396

Search

Navigation