Identity is a social reality that is constructed within the phenomena of interaction ritual.  Individuals display behavior in public places that can be considered a presentation of self (Goffman, 1959, 1966).  During a social situation, cultural capital is transmitted between participants.  I propose that causes and effects of interaction rituals extend beyond the surface exchange and are multilayered.  Based on an analysis of interaction ritual chains (Collins, 2004), I will develop an extended grounded theory called “social peripheralism” that explains how individual youth performances in a hip-hop dance crew are constructed through aesthetic dispositions (Bourdieu, 1984) of self and social positioning (Harré & Lagenhove, 1999) that is influenced mainly by parents.

Chapters

1. Thoery
1. Social Construction of Self
1. Lock
2. Giddens
3. Presentation of Self (Goffman)
4. Interaction Ritual Chains (Collins)
2. Symbolic Nature of Exchanges
1. Symbolic Interactionism (Mead)
2. Symbolic Interactionism – Perspective (Blumer)
3. Production of self
1. Through social positioning
1. Discursive: Bouncing from One to the Next (Harre)
2. Dialogicial: Imagining Different Positions at Once through Internal Dialogue (Hermans)
3. Dialectical: Opposing Social Forces (Bhaskar)
4. Class Consciousness (Lukacs)
2. Through aesthetic disposition
1. Distinction (Bourdieu)
2. Performance (Cooley)
2. Methods
1. Ethnomethodology (Garfinkel)
2. Phenomenology (Berger, Luckman)