History, The City and The Interactionist: Anselm Strauss, City Imagery, and Urban Sociology

Abstract

My goal in what follows is to explore some of the questions, analyses and insights that a scholar, equipped with a sense of history and the sensitivity of an interactionist , might bring to the study of the city. But before I begin that task, I want to spend a little time laying some ground‐ work. I want to introduce my readers to (or remind them of) two snippets of sociological history: the first snippet has to do with the place‐more accurately, the lack of place‐of the interactionist perspective within the field of urban sociology; the second deals with the unique contributions of one of the few interactionists to work urban sociology: Anselm Strauss.