List of Figures ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xxi
PART I. Radical Microsociology
Chapter 1
The Program of Interaction Ritual Theory 3
Situation rather than Individual as Starting Point 3
Conflicting Terminologies 7
Traditions of Ritual Analysis 9
Subcognitive Ritualism 9
Functionalist Ritualism 13
Goffman's Interaction Ritual 16
The Code-Seeking Program 25
The Cultural Turn 30
Classic Origins of IR Theory in Durkheim's Sociology of Religion 32
The Significance of Interaction Ritual for General
Sociological Theory 40
Chapter 2
The Mutual-Focus / Emotional-Entrainment Model 47
Ritual Ingredients, Processes, and Outcomes 47
Formal Rituals and Natural Rituals 49
Failed Rituals, Empty Rituals, Forced Rituals 50
Is Bodily Presence Necessary? 53
The Micro-Process of Collective Entrainment in Natural Rituals 65
Conversational Turn-Taking as Rhythmic Entrainment 66
Experimental and Micro-Observational Evidence on Rhythmic Coordination and Emotional Entrainment 75
Joint Attention as Key to Development of Shared Symbols 79
Solidarity Prolonged and Stored in Symbols 81
The Creation of Solidarity Symbols in 9/11 88
Rules for Unraveling Symbols 95
Chapter 3
Emotional Energy and the Transient Emotions 102
Disruptive and Long-Term Emotions, or Dramatic Emotions and Emotional Energy 105
Interaction Ritual as Emotion Transformer 107
Stratified Interaction Rituals 111
Power Rituals 112
Status Rituals 115
Effects on Long-Term Emotions: Emotional Energy 118
Emotion Contest and Conflict Situations 121
Short-Term or Dramatic Emotions 125
Transformations from Short-Term Emotions into Long-Term EE 129
The Stratification of Emotional Energy 131
Appendix: Measuring Emotional Energy and Its Antecedents 133
Chapter 4
Interaction Markets and Material Markets 141
Problems of the Rational Cost-Benefit Model 143
The Rationality of Participating in Interaction Rituals 146
The Market for Ritual Solidarity 149
Reinvestment of Emotional Energy and Membership Symbols 149
Match-Ups of Symbols and Complementarity of Emotions 151
Emotional Energy as the Common Denominator of Rational Choice 158
I. Material Production Is Motivated by the Need for Resources
for Producing IRs 160
II. Emotional Energy Is Generated by Work-Situation IRs 163
III. Material Markets Are Embedded in an Ongoing Flow of IRs Generating Social Capital 165
Altruism 168
When Are Individuals Most Materially Self-Interested? 170
The Bottom Line: EE-Seeking Constrained by Material Resources 171
Sociology of Emotions as the Solution to Rational Choice Anomalies 174
The Microsociology of Material Considerations 176
Situational Decisions without Conscious Calculation 181
Chapter 5
Internalized Symbols and the Social Process of Thinking 183
Methods for Getting Inside, or Back Outside 184
Intellectual Networks and Creative Thinking 190
Non-Intellectual Thinking 196
Anticipated and Reverberated Talk 197
Thought Chains and Situational Chains 199
The Metaphor of Dialogue among Parts of the Self 203
Verbal Incantations 205
Speeds of Thought 211
Internal Ritual and Self-Solidarity 218
PART II. Applications
Chapter 6
A Theory of Sexual Interaction 223
Sex as Individual Pleasure-Seeking 228
Sex as Interaction Ritual 230
Nongenital Sexual Pleasures as Symbolic Targets 238
Sexual Negotiation Scenes rather than Constant Sexual Essences 250
Prestige-Seeking and Public Eroticization 252
Chapter 7
Situational Stratification 258
Macro- and Micro-Situational Class, Status, and Power 263
Economic Class as Zelizer Circuits 263
Status Group Boundaries and Categorical Identities 268
Categorical Deference and Situational Deference 278
D-Power and E-Power 284
Historical Change in Situational Stratification 288
An Imagery for Contemporary Interaction 293
Chapter 8
Tobacco Ritual and Anti-Ritual: Substance Ingestion as a History of Social Boundaries 297
Inadequacies of the Health and Addiction Model 299
Tobacco Rituals: Relaxation / Withdrawal Rituals, Carousing Rituals, Elegance Rituals 305
Ritual Paraphernalia: Social Display and Solitary Cult 317
Failures and Successes of Anti-Tobacco Movements 326
Aesthetic Complaints and Struggle over Status Display Standards 327
Anti-Carousing Movements 328
The End of Enclave Exclusion: Respectable Women Join the Carousing Cult 329
The Health-Oriented Anti-Smoking Movement of the Late Twentieth Century 331
The Vulnerability of Situational Rituals and the Mobilization of Anti-Carousing Movements 337
Chapter 9
Individualism and Inwardness as Social Products 345
The Social Production of Individuality 347
Seven Types of Introversion 351
Work-Obsessed Individuals 351
Socially Excluded Persons 353
Situational Introverts 354
Alienated Introverts 355
Solitary Cultists 356
Intellectual Introverts 357
Neurotic or Hyper-Reflexive Introverts 360
The Micro-History of Introversion 362
The Modern Cult of the Individual 370
Notes 375
References 417
Index 435

Sex, smoking, and social stratification are three very different social phenomena. And yet, argues sociologist Randall Collins, they and much else in our social lives are driven by a common force: interaction rituals. Interaction Ritual Chains is a major work of sociological theory that attempts to develop a "radical microsociology." It proposes that successful rituals create symbols of group membership and pump up individuals with emotional energy, while failed rituals drain emotional energy. Each person flows from situation to situation, drawn to those interactions where their cultural capital gives them the best emotional energy payoff. Thinking, too, can be explained by the internalization of conversations within the flow of situations; individual selves are thoroughly and continually social, constructed from the outside in.
The first half of Interaction Ritual Chains is based on the classic analyses of Durkheim, Mead, and Goffman and draws on micro-sociological research on conversation, bodily rhythms, emotions, and intellectual creativity. The second half discusses how such activities as sex, smoking, and social stratification are shaped by interaction ritual chains. For example, the book addresses the emotional and symbolic nature of sexual exchanges of all sorts--from hand-holding to masturbation to sexual relationships with prostitutes--while describing the interaction rituals they involve. This book will appeal not only to psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists, but to those in fields as diverse as human sexuality, religious studies, and literary theory.

Randall Collins is Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of eleven books, including The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change, Four Sociological Traditions, and The Credential Society.