symbolic boundary

Examples of symbolic boundary in the following topics:

• Defining Boundaries

  • One important factor in how symbolic boundaries function is how widely they are accepted as valid.
  • Symbolic boundaries are a "necessary but insufficient" condition for social change.
  • He saw the symbolic boundary between the sacred and the profane as the most profound of all social facts, and the one from which lesser symbolic boundaries were derived.
  • Rituals, whether secular or religious, were for Durkheim the means by which groups maintained their symbolic and moral boundaries.
  • Mary Douglas has subsequently emphasized the role of symbolic boundaries in organizing experience, private and public, even in a secular society.

• The Interactionist Perspective

  • From a symbolic interactionist perspective, gender is produced and reinforced through daily interactions and the use of symbols.
  • Symbolic interactionism aims to understand human behavior by analyzing the critical role of symbols in human interaction.
  • The meanings attached to symbols are socially created and fluid, instead of natural and static.
  • Because of this, we act and react to symbols based on their current assigned meanings.
  • The woman in this picture blurs the boundaries between the symbols that are traditionally considered masculine or feminine.

• Religious Symbols

  • The Star of David is a Jewish religious symbol that represents Judaism.
  • Religious symbolism is the use by a religion of symbols including archetypes, acts, artwork, events, or natural phenomena.
  • The symbolism of the early Church was characterized as being understood by initiates only.
  • The study of religious symbolism is either universalist, a component of comparative religion and mythology, or seen in a localized scope within the confines of a religion's limits and boundaries.
  • Religious symbolism is effective when it appeals to both the intellect and the emotions.

• Populations, samples, and boundaries

  • At one extreme, they might consist of symbols in texts or sounds in verbalizations; at the other extreme, nations in the world system of states might constitute the population of nodes.
  • In each case, however, the elements of the population to be studied are defined by falling within some boundary.
  • The boundaries of the populations studied by network analysts are of two main types.
  • Probably most commonly, the boundaries are those imposed or created by the actors themselves.
  • Network analysts can expand the boundaries of their studies by replicating populations.

• The Symbolic Nature of Culture

  • Although language is perhaps the most obvious system of symbols we use to communicate, many things we do carry symbolic meaning.
  • Other gang members use these symbolic sartorial signals to recognize enemies and allies.
  • According to Max Weber, symbols are important aspects of culture: people use symbols to express their spirituality and the spiritual side of real events, and ideal interests are derived from symbols.
  • Cultures are shared systems of symbols and meanings.
  • Alphabets are one example of a symbolic element of culture.

• Mead

  • The two most important roots of Mead's work, and of symbolic interactionism in general, are the philosophy of pragmatism and social behaviorism.
  • He is a classic example of a social theorist whose work does not fit easily within conventional disciplinary boundaries.

• Theoretical Understandings of Socialization

  • Symbolic Interactionism - the self develops as a result of interrelated social interactions and interpretive processes; as a result, socialization is highly dependent on the situations in which the actor finds him/herself and the ways these situations are "made sense of" by the being or others; this approach also argues that socialization is a continuous, lifelong process
  • Internalization Theory - socialization is a series of stages in which the individual learns to participate in various levels of organization of society; this theory contends that the child internalizes a cognitive frame of reference for interpersonal relations and a common system of expressive symbolism in addition to a moral conscience; this approach was advocated by Talcott Parsons

• The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective

  • Symbolic interactionists view the family as a site of social reproduction where meanings are negotiated and maintained by family members.
  • Symbolic interactionism is a social theory that focuses on the analysis of patterns of communication, interpretation, and adjustment between individuals in relation to the meanings of symbols.
  • This emphasis on symbols, negotiated meaning, and the construction of society as an aspect of symbolic interactionism focuses attention on the roles that people play in society.
  • Symbolic interactionists also explore the changing meanings attached to family.
  • Symbolic interactionists explore the changing meanings attached to family.

• Symbols and Nature

  • Language is a symbolic system of communication based on a complex system of rules relating spoken, signed, or written symbols.
  • A sign is a symbol that stands for something else.
  • Signs can consist of sounds, gestures, letters, or symbols, depending on whether the language is spoken, signed, or written.
  • Language is based on complex rules relating spoken, signed, or written symbols to their meanings.
  • Parrots mimic the sounds of human language, but have they really learned the symbolic system?

• The Functionalist Perspective

  • Such societies were held together by shared values and common symbols.
  • Crime, however, may have the latent function of providing examples that demonstrate the boundaries of acceptable behavior and the function of these boundaries to maintain social norms.