Micro-level symbolic encounters carry relative autonomy from the social structure

Evidence

I designate as the content—the materials, so to speak—of sociation everything that is present in individuals (the immediately concrete loci of all historical reality)—drive, interest, purpose, inclination, psychic state, movement—everything that is present in them in such a way as to engender or mediate effects upon others or to receive such effects. In themselves, these materials which fill life, these motivations which propel it, are not social. Strictly speaking, neither hunger nor love, work nor religiosity, technology nor the functions and results of intelligence, are social. They are factors in sociation only when they transform the mere aggregation of isolated individuals into specific forms of being with and for one another, forms that are subsumed under the general concept of interaction. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 194 (#expands, via linked claim)

For such a thing as vocation to be possible, there must exist that harmony, whatever its origin, between the structure and development of society, and individual qualities and impulses. It is this general premise that constitutes the ultimate basis of the idea that for every personality there exist a position and a function in society to which he is called and which he must seek and find. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 191 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Micro-level signification has relative autonomy because encounters are never fully determined; Situation-level symbolic transactions can influence society’s broader reproduction; Social structures are objectivated meanings built through inter-subjective exchange (+11 more)

Related

• Individual motives become social only through forms of mutual interaction (similarity 0.84)
• Social orders integrate at the level of attributed motives (similarity 0.81)
• Society presupposes a harmony between its structure and individual inner callings (similarity 0.81)
• Ethical value-schemes map fortuitously onto objective social forms (similarity 0.81)
• The individual’s inner mental relations mirror social relations among persons (similarity 0.80)
• Situation-level symbolic transactions can influence society’s broader reproduction (similarity 0.80)
• Micro-level signification has relative autonomy because encounters are never fully determined (similarity 0.80)
• Social structures are objectivated meanings built through inter-subjective exchange (similarity 0.80)
• Identical interaction forms recur across radically different social groups (similarity 0.79)
• Social formations form complex unities structured in dominance rather than expressive identities. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Individual motives become social only through forms of mutual interaction #expands (0.82) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 194
• Micro-level signification has relative autonomy because encounters are never fully determined #corroborates (0.80)
• Society presupposes a harmony between its structure and individual inner callings #complicates (0.80) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 191
• Formal similarity of social position creates solidarity regardless of personal character #complicates (0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 595
• Situation-level symbolic transactions can influence society’s broader reproduction #expands (0.60)
• Social structures are objectivated meanings built through inter-subjective exchange #complicates (0.50)
• Social formation elements articulate with each other in complex ways #qualifies (0.50)