Becoming Other From Social Interaction to Self-reflection

This book presents a rigorous empirical exploration of the ideas of George Herbert Mead. While Mead’s work has been highly influential, there are few empirical studies that instantiate his conception of mind, self and society. Beginning with a novel interpretation of Mead’s theory, the book argues that Mead’s core problematic is the explanation of self-reflection. What is interesting about the theory is that it provides a precise account of how self-reflection is rooted in institutionalised patterns of social interaction. The empirical part of the book utilises Mead’s theory to conceptualise social interaction between tourists and locals in a remote part of northern India. The analysis details the intricate ways in which both tourists and locals come to reflect upon themselves from each others’ perspectives. Tourists worry about appearing ignorant and wealthy in the eyes of locals, and locals wonder why they are the object of so many tourists’ photographs. The promise of the book is to explicate exactly how this integration of perspectives arises.