Symbolic Interaction and Inequality

Norman K. Denzin, the longtime editor of Studies of Symbolic Interaction, passed away in August 2023. Regarded as the ‘Father of Qualitative Inquiries’, Prof. Denzin is considered as one of the most important scholars in the 20th and 21st centuries. Other than editing Studies in Symbolic Interaction since its inception in 1978 to the time of his passing, for nearly half of a century, Prof. Denzin authored more than 30 books and countless journal articles, as well as launched and edited major journals and book series. Shing-Ling S. Chen is Professor of Mass Communication in the Department of Communication and Media at the University of Northern Iowa, USA. Trained by Carl J. Couch as a symbolic interactionist, she studies information technologies and social orders, as well as communication processes and social relationships.

Chapter 1. Inequality in Everyday Life; Michael A. Katovich and Shing-Ling S. Chen

Chapter 2. Identity: Relations, Habitats, Artifacts and Alienation; Robert Perinbanayagam

Chapter 3. “Too Many Genders?": Ambiguity as Resistance in the Biographical Work of Gender-diverse People; Lilith Green and Carol Rambo

Chapter 4. A Radical Interactionist Perspective on Family Conflicts and Mothers with Substance Use Problems; Kimberly M. Baker

Chapter 5. Breaking Step: Silence, Resonance, and Everyday Precariousness in Academic Settings; John C. Pruit, Carol Rambo, and Amanda G. Pruit

Chapter 6. First-Generation Students’ Identity Construction, Concealment, & COVID-driven Reckonings: Reconciling Self-Definitions Amidst Institutional Contradiction; Linda M. Waldron, Danielle Docka-Filipek, Carlie Carter, and Rachel Thornton

Chapter 7. Criminalized Subjectivity and Racial Stigma: Implications for the Identity and Self-Concept of Black University Students; Julien Grayer

Chapter 8. Performance or Appearance: Paradoxical Generalized Others of the College Female Athletes; Shing-Ling S. Chen, Zhuojun Joyce Chen and Courtney Styron