Partialization and Contemporary Culture: A Simmelian-Inspired Analysis

• In Event: The Simmelian Turn in Cultural Sociology: The Culturalist Allure of Formal Sociology

Abstract

This presentation uses a Simmelian “exampling” analysis to elaborate and expand upon the concept of partialization as previously developed to understand the two-sided character of many institutions within American culture including the law and media (Chancer 2005). I argue that the concept of partialization is kindred with but not exactly identical with the notion of binaries (Zerubavel 1993), and that it offers an additionally useful cognitive tool for understanding apparently intractable situations involving polarization in a wide range of contemporary social and historical contexts. The paper begins by defining partialization as a distinctive idea involving two-sidedness and social pressures toward “side taking.” This definition relates to but also distinguishes the concept from that of binaries. Next, I proceed with what can aptly be described as a Simmelian as well as cognitive sociological “method” aimed at exemplifying and classifying the utility and contemporary resonance of partialization in at least three types of contexts. First, I provide examples of partialization’s appearance in contemporary academic conceptualizations such as debates over “race” versus “class” or “gender” versus “race.” A second category of exemplifying partialization involves the way it appears in the framing of media and other cultural framings of concrete social issues and current events. Third, partialization is exemplified as it can become manifest in “everyday” dialogues and discussions among friends, colleagues and neighbors as though only two-sided conceptual frameworks were possible. Lastly, the paper contends that becoming cognizant of partialization as a deeply embedded cultural habit itself starts a process of moving beyond its limitations toward more multi-dimensional ways of conceptualizing and understanding a wide range of situations. This process has important ramifications for how polarizing and divisive conceptual frameworks can be avoided rather than reproduced.

Author

• Lynn Sharon Chancer, CUNY-Hunter College