Tom Morrione

Areas of Expertise

• Deviance and conformity

• Lifestyles, marginality

• Nonprofits and Philanthropy

• Nationalism and national identity
• Social psychology and contemporary sociological theory

Publications

George Herbert Mead and Human Conduct by Herbert Blumer, edited by Thomas J. Morrione

In this posthumous volume, renowned sociologist Herbert Blumer analyzes George Herbert Mead’s position in the study of human conduct. Engaged with Mead’s work for more than half a century, Blumer explored Mead’s ideas for developing the theoretical and methodological position of symbolic interactionism, a term that Blumer would later introduce. Although Blumer focused on the sociological and social psychological implications of Mead’s pragmatism, his objective was to explore social processes embodied in and formed through social action. Envisioning individual and collective social action as ongoing accomplishments achieved through symbolic interaction. Blumer insisted on grounding scholarly knowledge about the human condition in the empirical world of people’s experiences.

Edited and introduced by Thomas J. Morrione, a colleague and friend to whom Blumer entrusted his unpublished papers, this volume also includes Blumer’s correspondence with David L. Miller about Mead’s theories and other related correspndence. For a greater understanding of both Mead’s and Blumer’s philosophies, this volume will be essential reading for students and teachers of social theory and symbolic interactionism. AltaMira Publishers (December 2003)

Industrialization as an Agent of Social Change edited with an Introduction by David R. Maines and Thomas J. Morrione

Herbert Blumer wrote continuously and voluminously, and consequently left a vast array of unplublished work at the time of his death in 1987. This posthumously published volume testifies further to his perceptive analysis of large-scale social organizations and elegant application of symbolic interactionist principles. The editors’ introductory essay outlines Blumer’s metatheoretical stance (symbolic interactionism) and its emphasis on the adjustive chapter of social life. It places Blumer’s theory in the context of contemporary macro theory, including world systems theory, resource dependence theory, and modernization theory. Aldine de Gruyter Publishers