Georg Simmel - Social Geometry

Here we see the Dyad - a two person group.  These two boys love to play together with very little fussing, feuding, and fighting between them (other than the occasional HULK smash).  Withing a dyad, each person is able to retain their individuality.

Here are two pictures depicting the Triad - three person group.  The sister emerges and conflict will soon arise between all three vying for the leader spot.  The picture of the tree shows the sister's bad attitude that has developed.  She is unhappy the boys are having fun together making her feel left out of the group.  In the second picture, the sister jumped in front of the camera in order to gain attention and put the spotlight on her.  The triad can manifest conflict as the group structure starts to grow.  The conflict with these three is always the leader/superiority disaster.  One of them will eventually coerce another to gang up on the third by mocking or name calling in order to create a leadership position within this triad.

Georg Simmel - Theory of Fashion

Simmel theorized on fashion. He addressed the dialectic thinking behind the whole mess of what is fashionable one year could be completely unacceptable to wear the next. He saw fashion as a area within society that proved to be quite contradictory. As an item of clothing or as in this case, the beard, becomes more and more mainstream in society, chances are it is about to become a fashion failure and Chris (my boyfriend) will shave it off.  Over-hyped anything leads to the eventual disliking by mainstream society.

Max Weber - Party

When you are in prison you are affiliated with where you are from.  SFV or San Fernando Valley is one of many valleys represented in California's corrections.  Weber describes parties as structures always struggling to be at the top or dominating the system.  Well, in prison this occurs more often than not.  Your race as well as where you are from can determine your position on the prison yard.  This, I believe, is very political in origin. Weber states that parties not only exist in politics but in social clubs as well.  They can be represented by ones class or status.  All of these factors including personal experience can play a role as to your own personal and political position on a prison yard.

Max Weber - Status

This is Ogden Dutcher, my great grandfather.  This would have been taken around the late 1890s.  He was an aristocrat from New York born into influence and high status as you can see by his silly collar.  Weber states that status exists in the social order.  Your status is associated to your style of life and consumption of goods produced.  The Dutchers were upper class New Yorkers that lived the lavish life including his attendance to Yale.  In this depiction of status, Ogden's status is related to class situation.  This may not always be the case but often occurs in this type of pattern in America.

Max Weber - Class

My family.  In the middle is my grandpa and grandma.  Those other women are all my grandmother's sisters. They are all part of America's working class.  Weber states that class exists in the economic order.  He also has three different criteria in order to distinguish the group as a class.  The first is that the people have common specific causes in their life chances.  Yup, this group depicted is depression era raised and labor job intensive.  Second, the class is defined by economic interests of goods and opportunities for income.  Third, this class is represented under conditions made by commodities and labor markets.  All five of this individuals shared the same economic situation.  They all are service or labor workers.  We have the telephone company, the nurse, the college secretary, the raisin board secretary, and two laborers.  They were not wealthy.  They were not poor.

George Herbert Mead - Child Development - Generalized Other

These two pictures were the only way I could think of to describe Mead's final stage of child development, generalized other.  We have his recent report card on the left showing he works well with others, shows respect, as well as being a "pleasure to have in class." Yes, this made me proud, but from a theorist stand point we can see that by his good behavior and respect for the group he is showing the signs of taking on the group attitudes and behaviors not just his own.  He is part of his classroom community.
The picture on the right is his invitation to black belt club. This is an honor.  It shows that you have the qualities that this particular dojo requires in a black belt. Again, this advancement in karate is a sign that my son is developing a group attitude and thought process.  He is able to function well within the groups atmosphere by directing his activity with the attitude of the generalized other.

George Herbert Mead - Child Development - Game Stage

The game stage Mead describes the child having to take the role of everyone else involved.  My son does not play sports like baseball or soccer but I think his participation in karate could be an example of game stage development.  This is a picture of graduation.  He has to be a participant at his belt level performing the correct form at the correct time with the rest of his class.  He has to be a leader to the younger belts as he performs his karate forms.  He has to respect his master at all times.  During this stage as well as this particular karate graduation he had to learn to be able to participate in a organized group.

George Herbert Mead - Child Development - Play Stage

My son loves Zombies.  He really is preparing for the zombie apocalypse.  This would be a throwback picture to when he began perfecting his undead gate and slobbering growl at the young age of five.  This pretending to be a zombie all the way back to the car and down the road (twenty five miles down the road) is an example of Mead's first stage of child development, play.  This is the stage where children play as others.  They learn to take the role and attitude of another person to themselves.  Mead states that this type of play pretend is part of the building blocks to forming a self.

Thorstein Veblen - Waste in Conspicuous Consumption

The time that is wasted in playing this online computer game, Minecraft, is incredible. Video games in general can be quite expensive and take up very large amounts of one's time and thoughts. However, they are truly useless.  They are only to entertain. There is no need to have or play video games.  Those that are of the leisure class can afford to buy the brand new game as well as afford to play the game for thirteen hours straight without break.  But Veblen describes this type of consumption at this level a total waste.

Thorstein Veblen - Characteristic of Leisure Class

One characteristic of the leisure class is the want to fight or duel. Another characteristic is the popularity of playing or watching a sport.  This picture shows both.  Karate is often considered a sport of fighting like boxing.  Studios are often expensive therefore those who partake may come from the wealthier leisure class. Veblen states these type of activities are left over animalistic habits from barbarian societies that are no longer useful.  Karate can prove to still have some use.  But when you think about six years old sparring, Veblen's theory might be quite correct.

Thorstein Veblen - Conspicuous Consumption

That's a lot of crappy makeup.

Conspicuous consumption is part of daily life for the leisure class.  This is the consumption of unnecessary amounts of goods, food, services, amusements, etc. But for those that are not quite in this lavish class, the working poor often emulate the leisure class.  The female or wife of the household often will obtain or collect or buy goods like makeup in order to present herself like the wealthy celebrity women in the magazine tabloids.  Veblen theorized that this type of consumption from the lady of the house is done to promote her spouses reputation.  Therefore if her husband has a pretty made up wife, he will be more popular among friends or have a higher status among coworkers and employer.

Emile Durkheim - Social Facts - Nonmaterial

George Washington was an American hero!  That's what my son told me throughout the month of February when we celebrate President's Day as well as George Washington's birthday.  Durkheim would say that this reverence for our first president would be considered a nonmaterial social fact falling under the collective representation category.  A nonmaterial fact is a norm, value, or the culture of society. These are not tangible items like material social facts.  Durkheim described these facts by forming four different types.  Morality, collective conscience, collective representations, and social currents.  They are all external as well as coercive to the individual. They also can be studied empirically.  George Washington as a collective representation gives the perfect example of the definition: collective ideas and social force.  They are the norms, values, and beliefs within our society.  American's take pride in our presidents and create a hero type of image to portray their importance to our youth. This is the American collective representation of George Washington.

Emile Durkheim - Social Facts - Material

Durkheim describes a social fact as the social structures and cultural norms that are coercive and external to the individual.  A material social fact is directly observable.
Here is an example of a material social fact according to Durkheim.  This is the terms and conditions, rights and responsibilities, policies, and standards of the online community Facebook.  These are legal codes.  Facebook's legal codes fall under Durkheim's material social facts because they are directly observable as well as coercive to the user as well as external to.