In: Psychology
Georg Simmel’s sociology focuses on a kind of ‘social geometry’ in which he analyzes social distance and social forms to elucidate society. Choose one of the Simmel essays and provide examples of this geometric method.
Answer.
George Simmel is known for his pioneering analyses of social individuality and fragmentation as inevitable processes in the development of a society. Within Sociology, he is known for his concepts of dyadic structure of society and social distance.
In his essay titled the Metropolis and Mental Life, he analyses the structural arrangement of groups and the physical distance maintained by the people in the big city as bearing an overall effect on the mind or the self. According to him, The deepest problems of modern life emerge out of the individual’s struggle to maintain his/her independence and individuality against the homogenising tendency of the sovereign powers of society, the external culture and technological machinery. As the structure of the group becomes increasingly greater, the individual becomes separated and grows more alone, isolated and segmented.
The value of an individual is determined by the distance from another actor in society. Simmel discusses that if a person is geographically too close to the actor they are not considered a stranger. However, if the distance is far greater then they would no longer be a part of a group. Thus, Simmel worked out a social configuration of group relationships and identities based on social distance that members of a group may like to maintain between others. particular distance from a group allows a person to have objective relationships with different group members