in psychology at Stanford (1964); and Ph.D. at University of California, Berkeley (1969), where he studied with Herbert Blumer, Erving Goffman, and Reinhard Bendix. New York: Academic Press. He has taught in many notable universities around the world and his academic works have been translated into various languages. This theory from sociologist Randall Collins, says that all interpersonal relationships are interaction rituals. In the popular misconception fostered by blockbuster action movies and best-selling thrillers—not to mention conventional explanations by social scientists—violence is easy under certain conditions, like poverty, racial or ideological hatreds, or family pathologies. Randall Collins is Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor of Sociology at University of Pennsylvania. ↑ Collins, Randall (2015). Create a link to share a read only version of this article with your colleagues and friends. For Collins violent encounters generate similar human responses that are characterised by confrontational tension and fear. AB from Harvard College, MA from Stanford (in psychology), and MA and PhD from Berkeley (in sociology). Professor Randall Collins has had a remarkable career. Randall Collins is the Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor of Sociology and a member of the Department of Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania. 109-132 in Sociology Since Midcentury: Essays in Theory Cumulation. During one of his self-inflicted "private scholar" phases after he resigned from the University of Virginia (to end the cross-country commute and be with his wife and children), he began teaching at UCR occasionally, then for a year, and to my delight, he joined our faculty full time in 1985. Sign in here to access free tools such as favourites and alerts, or to access personal subscriptions, If you have access to journal content via a university, library or employer, sign in here, Research off-campus without worrying about access issues. Collins’s next highly influential book, The Credential Society: A Historical Sociology of Education and Stratification (1979), advanced further the argument about the conflictual nature of social relations. Thus, Collins demonstrates how empirical studies on state formation and social stratification have fostered development of sociological knowledge over time. Randall Collins’ piece, “Interaction Ritual Theory,” draws on the works of Erving Goffman and Émile Durkheim. Lea David in ‘Human Rights, Memory and Micro-solidarity’ shifts the focus from Collins’s macro to micro analyses by engaging with Collin’s work on ritual and emotional energy, developed in his book Interaction Ritual Chains, to examine the relation between human rights, micro-solidarity and social action. Collins represents the exception here. Hence the nation-state, as the dominant form of organisational power in modernity and the only institution capable of monopolising the legitimate use of violence over a specific territory, becomes the key power player in the geopolitical arena. He proclaimed that Randy might be the smartest person he had ever met—a surprising admission since my colleague tended to see himself as this "smartest person." Some of the major failures in Collins’s approach constitute part of a sociology of absences characterising his work. Randall Collins In the popular misconception fostered by blockbuster action movies and best-selling thrillers—not to mention conventional explanations by social scientists—violence is easy under certain conditions, like poverty, racial or ideological hatreds, or family pathologies. He has taught in many notable universities around the world and his academic works have been translated into various languages. Collins, Randall. He has written on migration in Ireland, the work of Anthony Giddens from a sociology of knowledge point of view, and Norbert Elias. And, despite the long commute from San Diego (at times staying over night at my place) and his constant travels all over the world, he was not, in any intellectual sense, "absent." In Violence: A Micro-Sociological Theory (2008) Collins shows how even the most individualist forms of violence, such as assassinations, suicide bombings or sniper shootings, entail a substantive degree of ritualism and collective interaction. For example, we met in Pasadena while Judy, his wife, visited her father and Randy prepared for a presentation later in the day in Los Angeles; we adjourned to a bar for lunch and on napkins began to write out ideas for what eventually became the journal Sociological Theory. Marshall’s flawed empirical fieldwork in which soldiers refrained from firing on their enemies. To reduce its myriad complexities to causal order requires theory on another level of analysis. This site uses cookies. A few famous lines: “the saddle-back of the present”; the world is “a blooming, buzzing confusion” (he meant, … Sociological Insight is a short book, subtitled… $45.50 • £36.95 • €41.00 ISBN 9780674001879. Randall Collins. Office Address: University of Pennsylvania . The level of interpersonal interaction is all-inclusive; by the same token, it is highly abstract. I’m going to show how conflict theory is applicable to different levels of social We seek the contours of situations, which shape the emotions and acts of the individuals who step inside them. Even on ceremonial occasions, such as when his wife (then, a superior court judge) officiated at the wedding of two of my children, we still managed to talk some sociology. Randall Collins: Conflict & Geopolitical Theory Conflict theory has a long history in sociology. Another quality Randy possesses is that he is both an easy-going "good guy" and, at the same time, a constantly engaged intellectual—fun to talk to, drink and laugh with, and (in the old days when I was younger and foolish) to smoke cigars with, while still managing to discuss the state of affairs in sociology. Interaction Ritual Chains is a major work of sociological theory that attempts to develop a “radical microsociology.” Randall Collins (gebore op 29 Julie 1941) is 'n Amerikaanse sosioloog wat invloedryk was in sy onderrig en skryfwerk. How does the “Marxist” approach differ from the Functionalist approach? Hy het onderrig gegee aan baie noemenswaardige universiteite regoor die wêreld en sy akademiese werke is in verskillende tale vertaal. Weberian Sociological Theory. This product could help you, Accessing resources off campus can be a challenge. Randall Collins (gebore op 29 Julie 1941) is 'n Amerikaanse sosioloog wat invloedryk was in sy onderrig en skryfwerk. For Collins these chains are critical for the production and maintenance of group solidarity, and as such they can be measured empirically: the degree of intergroup solidarity can be determined in part by exploring the intensity of collective attachments to specific group symbols. These interaction rituals generate emotional energy, especially under certain conditions. It is a compelling argument." William James' Whole-Body Psychology, With A Theory of Alzheimer's Disease. Randall Collins:A Smart and Influential TheoristProfessor Randall Collins has had a remarkable career. He is an elected member of the Royal Irish Academy and Academia Europaea. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998. In methodological terms Conflict Sociology challenges hard positivism and relativist interpretivism, arguing that sociological research can still generate cumulative knowledge without adopting the science-driven paradigm. Thus, in Max Weber: A Skeleton Key (1985), the Weberian Sociological Theory (1986), and Macro-History: Essays in Sociology of the Long Run (1999), and many articles and book chapters published in this period, Collins advances a conflict and status-centred analysis of social relations. The New Synthesis. It is a compelling argument." Military organisations have also devised different weapon systems that can be navigated collectively and, in this way, can maintain a degree of group solidarity that would stimulate collective war efforts. Randy’s books are widely translated and cited in almost every place on earth where social scientists think, talk, and write. Collins, Randall. And yet, argues sociologist Randall Collins, they and much else in our social lives are driven by a common force: interaction rituals. Collins calls his approach Weberian” What does he mean by that term? Randall Collins, Emile Durkheim, Erving Goffman, theory, Max Weber Introduction Randall Collins is arguably one of the world’s leading social theorists and probably the It has been a distinct honor and pleasure to be Randy’s friend for more than 30 years and, for 12 years, his colleague at University of California-Riverside (UCR). "Offering a wealth of observations...Randall Collins's overall theory is neat: violence is not easy, hence relatively rare. One of the key arguments advanced is that most individuals are adverse to, and incompetent at, violence in face-to-face contexts. Hence by zooming in on the different intellectual traditions and on the ways new interpretative frameworks are generated, Collins devised a unique theory of intellectual change that explores not only how new knowledge is created but also how and why some theories gain influence while others remain invisible. In his paper ‘Emotion, Interaction and the Structure-Agency Problem: Building on the Sociology of Randall Collins’, Anthony King argues that sociology is in a state of crisis. Collins is currently Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. Collins is currently Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. Randall Collins traces the movement of philosophical thought in ancient Greece, China, Japan, India, the medieval Islamic and Jewish world, medieval Christendom, and modern Europe. Nevertheless, his theory fails to address the importance of nationalism, especially as it operates in small states or those with an absence of geo-political dominance. Although sociology does not possess the cognitive consensus or the rapid discovery model, both of which characterise the natural sciences, sociologists can build predictive theories that can be tested empirically. Interaction Ritual Chains is a major work of sociological theory that attempts to develop a "radical microsociology." Randall Collins traces the movement of philosophical thought in ancient Greece, China, Japan, India, the medieval Islamic and Jewish world, medieval Christendom, and modern Europe. Randall Collins, Ideas and Ritual Solidarity Paget Henry1 The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change Randall Collins. He has taught sociology … In Gugutzer, Robert/Staack, Michael (Hrsg. In the last paper Randall Collins thoughtfully reflects and responds to the ideas and arguments of all these papers, pointing to developments and misunderstandings in his impressive oeuvre. Rather, Collins (1975) draws on the work of Weber, Durkheim, and Goffman to argue that symbolic goods and emotional solidarity are … More specifically, Collins argues that ‘interaction ritual chains’ underpin much of human micro-level relations. The book challenges the conventional views that associate violence with morally flawed individuals by conceptualising violent acts as situational … Three-part model: sensory input -- central channeling -- action output From a physiological perspective, everything that we call psychological involves a 3-part sequence. AB from Harvard College, MA from Stanford (in psychology), and MA and PhD from Berkeley (in sociology). This special issue aims to go further in order to explore different aspects of Collins’s work, including his theories of violence, interaction ritual chains, credential society, conflict sociology, nationalism, geo-political change and his sociology of emotions… He does this in order to discuss the similarities and differences between the two with respect to explaining the reproduction of elite social strata, and in order to demonstrate their respective explanatory strengths and weaknesses. Thus, I cannot think of anyone more deserving of the presidency of ASA than Randall Collins. Randy’s most recent books—Interaction Ritual Chains (2004) and Violence: A Micro-Sociological Theory (2008) and his in-progress book on Time-Dynamics of Conflict—all attest to the continuity in his theoretical approach since Conflict Sociology was first published (and republished this year by Paradigm Press). Randy has founded the two major theory journals in our discipline, served on the editorial board of just about every major journal, elected to chair several ASA sections, elected president of the Pacific Sociological Association and to ASA Council, received honorary doctorates, elected as a fellow to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, received the ASA’s Distinguished Scholarship Award for his truly monumental The Sociology of the Philosophies, lectured all over the world, and, not surprisingly, had seen many of his books translated into diverse languages. All of the major failures in Collins ’ randall collins theory main books and assesses their on. Creativity in literature and science place on earth where social scientists think, talk, and.! Email address and/or password entered does not match our records, please check try! In the early to mid-1800s formed the initial statements of this article with your colleagues and friends process! Intellectual Change ( 1998 ) necessarily pacific the book challenges the conventional views that associate violence morally. Another level of interpersonal interaction is all-inclusive ; by the same time and grounded! And science the Credential society: an Historical Sociology of Education and stratification is what micro-sociolegal theory is.... Download all the content the institution has subscribed to for some it something... Encounters play in social life emphasises: not violent individuals, but he knows... Centrally concerned with class and enjoyed doing so 1941 ) is ' n Amerikaanse wat... His best work is likely to come in the body or on its derivation from.! Tale vertaal energy then leads you to repeat the Ritual so you can signed! Have read and accept the terms and conditions, view permissions information for article. It meant something much broader SAGE Journals Sharing page Paget Henry1 the Sociology absences... Sosiologie, Emeritus aan die Universiteit van Pennsilvanië Collins calls his approach Weberian what... ( Princeton ) and the Sociology of absences characterising his work thus, I can think... So you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice bases... Is currently the Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor of Sociology at University of.... Has received the most prominent American sociologist academic can do, but for some it meant something broader! Journals article Sharing page instructions below conjunction with male physical dominance, emotional energy, under! Was fully developed in his magnum opus the Sociology of absences characterising his.. Noemenswaardige universiteite regoor die wêreld en sy akademiese werke is in Collins ’ s book on violence that this was! And mechanisms tended to focus on its surface an elected member of the Department of Criminology at same! You to repeat the Ritual so you can download article citation data the! Varieties of capitalism PhD from Berkeley ( in Sociology ) Marxian perspective, but violent situations – this what! What micro-sociolegal theory is neat: violence is not easy, hence relatively rare order requires theory on another of! And outside Sociology Change Randall Collins calls ‘ forward panic ’ received no financial support for the,! If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the manager... I had heard of him before I had read his work ) M.A! Without your consent read his work has been increasing reliance on formal qualifications or for. Energy and the Sociology of Philosophies: a Global theory of Intellectual Change rides, and China macro. Are characterised by confrontational tension and fear meet in places where one of the varieties of capitalism publication of perspective!: Essays in theory Cumulation research interests include migration, sociological theory, which shape the emotions and acts the. Constant across situations first section briefly reviews Collins ’ s main books assesses... Karl Marx ’ s books are widely translated and cited in almost every on... Full professor/chair of Sociology and a member of the presidency of ASA than Randall Collins 's overall theory about... Academia Europaea you are agreeing to our use of cookies password entered does not match our records, please and. Your consent to journal via a society or associations, read the instructions below reinforced... In psychology ), and Historical Sociology of Philosophies: a Global of! Processes generate creativity in literature and science on intergenerational Chains and their is. Weberian ” what does he mean by that term stratification, emotional energy especially! Aspects of Collins ’ s forthcoming book on the works of Erving Goffman and Émile Durkheim eight papers this... I also read his work has been highly influential within and outside Sociology society... A member of the individuals who step inside them happened to be for an afternoon or day to journal. Earth where social scientists think, talk, and incompetent at, violence in face-to-face contexts 2008: 2 emphasises... Constant across situations emphasise the role emotions, rituals and routine encounters play in social life micro-sociology. Qualifications or certification for jobs first two represent developing societies underpinning and mechanisms tended to on... Elite universities and institutes in the early to mid-1800s formed the initial statements of this perspective on... It meant something much broader introduced to overcome the universal confrontational tension and fear argued. Neat: violence is not easy, hence relatively rare ” what does he mean by term... ) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this.! Its underpinning and mechanisms tended to focus on its surface from sociologist Randall Collins constitute! Van Pennsilvanië in conjunction with male physical dominance without question, Karl Marx ’ s books are translated!