重新发现布鲁默：从joint action概念入手（Azarian,2017）

Azarian, Reza. 2017. “Joint Actions, Stories and Symbolic Structures: A Contribution to Herbert Blumer’s Conceptual Framework.” Sociology 51 (3): 685–700.

布鲁默，似乎是个不太被关注的社会学家。他过时的吗？可以再挖掘吗？

但是，北欧社会学家Reza Azarian（他还写过一本关于Harrison White的专著）似乎不甘心，他认为Herbert Blumer的joint actions概念是个很和现在的研究取向匹配的概念，值得发挥出来。

之所以说是挖掘，是因为布鲁默在他的文本中也没有完全把joint action作为一个正式概念来使用，但从他的文本中，Reza Azarian得出这样的定义：

the concept of joint action has an almost all inclusive empirical referent, and denotes any case of social interaction where the participants’ individual courses of action cross and fit into one another,

Joint action看似是一个十分广泛和普遍的概念，比如，婚礼、游戏、晚宴……

for instance in ‘a trading transaction, a family dinner, a marriage ceremony, a shopping expedition, a game, a convivial party, a debate, a court trial, or a war’ (Blumer, 1969: 70).

在论及这个概念的时候，研究者往往面对的问题意识是这样的：如何让参与者的个人行动得以在互动中相互协调？

how the fitting of the participants’ individual lines of action occurs or through which mechanisms the participants jointly produce the alignment of their behavior

仔细分析，这个概念涉及到六个特征：

1. 匹配协调

——‘the fitting together’ of the separate and distinct acts of the individual parties、

2. 突现的社会组织性

——as ‘a societal organization of such acts’ and as such it is an ‘emergent’ (Cuff et al., 1998: 135) phenomenon（不是累加）

3. 内在相互依赖性

The second property is the inbuilt interdependency among the participants in a joint action.

4. 偶连性完成

——joint action in Blumer’s view is a contingent accomplishment, taking shape through the ongoing mutual fitting attempts of its participants and through the interlocking of their courses of behavior.

5. 累积固化

——‘the diversified joint actions which compromise a human society are set to follow fixed and established channels’ (1969: 72); and it is to capture this feature that he underlines the incremental character of joint action

6. 参与的活动是可界定可诠释的

——the participants’ defining activities. According to Blumer, as actors are called on to act in given situations they have to ascertain the meaning of the actions of others and design their own lines of action in light of such interpretations.

由于这六点特征，作者借用了吉登斯的结构=规则+资源，以及当前行动理论中常讨论的事件性/偶连性，叙事/建构的问题，引入来丰富这个概念。他认为，将这个挖掘出来的概念，带入到了以下脉络：

1. 因为偶连，所以控制

the contingency that, according to Blumer, is constitutive of joint action induces the participants to seek efficient control regarding its career, that is, the directions it might take and the outcomes it might generate.

2. 因为可界定，所以需叙事

such attempts normally permeate the very core of the unfolding joint action – the participants’ defining activities – and are carried out in the form of the legitimising narratives or stories (White, 1992) that normally envelop any purposeful line of action – be it motivated by material interests, emotions and values or otherwise.

3. 因为可建构，所以需结构（动词）

Finally, in constructing their stories participants typically draw on the symbolic rules and resources available (Giddens, 1984), which are provided by the symbolic structures prevailing in wider society.

实际上，这样带来了power/domination分析，而权力问题，正是布鲁默作为象征互动论一派常被诟病的一点。

 （Sociological理论大缸第125期）

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