The process of construction of social values: revisiting the concept of social value from the point of view of the symbolic interactionism tradition

Abstract

In the second decade of the 21st century, great issues that challenge humanity, from wars to climate change, have been growing. The consequence of climate change, such as natural disasters, water scarcity, and pandemics, has deepened social inequalities. Many problems have persisted despite the technological, economic and social progress achieved in the last two centuries and make us reflect on how we ended up in this situation. After all, what makes sense and matters to the groups and societies that inhabit this planet? To address this issue, we chose, within American pragmatism, the symbolic interactionism tradition and the concept of social value, based on the sociological approach of social psychology, aiming to explain how the process of construction of this type of value occurs. We revisited, from the three versions of symbolic interactionism (traditional, contemporary, and structural), the concept set forth by Thomas and Znaniecki (1927, 2006). Through this theoretical integration, we propose a contemporary conceptual definition of what social value is in order to continue with the formulation of a theoretical model regarding the process of construction of social values, paving the way to understand the dynamics between the different social structures (macro) and the agency of human beings (micro) in the signification, resignification, and even abandonment of such values.