A Complicated but Not Impossible Marriage: Critical Theory and Symbolic Interactionism

The paper explores the potential for dialogue between Symbolic Interactionism and Critical Theory. The first part lists all the difficulties of this attempt, while the rest illustrates four theoretical perspectives showing that convergence is possible: 1) Athens' Radical Interactionism; 2) Clarke's Situational Analysis; 3) Goffman's thematisation of power; 4) Burawoy's Extended Case Method. The paper concludes that narrowing the gap between these two theoretical approaches can only produce generalised benefits and mutual enrichment.