---
product_id: 8245438
title: "Interaction Ritual Chains (Princeton Studies in Cultural Sociology)"
brand: "randall collins"
price: "€ 99.36"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 9
url: https://www.desertcart.hr/products/8245438-interaction-ritual-chains-princeton-studies-in-cultural-sociology
store_origin: HR
region: Croatia
---

# Interaction Ritual Chains (Princeton Studies in Cultural Sociology)

**Brand:** randall collins
**Price:** € 99.36
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Interaction Ritual Chains (Princeton Studies in Cultural Sociology) by randall collins
- **How much does it cost?** € 99.36 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.hr](https://www.desertcart.hr/products/8245438-interaction-ritual-chains-princeton-studies-in-cultural-sociology)

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## Description

Interaction Ritual Chains (Princeton Studies in Cultural Sociology)

## Images

![Interaction Ritual Chains (Princeton Studies in Cultural Sociology) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41xNGpzFE6L.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Ambitious and thoughtful
  

*by S***N on Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2007*

Collins pulls together many of the themes of his earlier works to produce a general theory of social interaction.  Basically, humans engage in interaction rituals to attain emotional energy.  Some of these interaction rituals are more successful than others.  Nearly all have some exclusionary features, and some people are more central to the rituals than others (for example, the athletes on the field versus the fans in the stands, or the fans at home).  Those more central build more emotional energy, and often find themselves in chains of high emotional energy rituals, thus developing a higher sense of emotional energy--that mysterious, intimidating quality one finds around celebrities in practically any field. This theory is certainly a welcome alternative to the crackpot ideas of socio-biology and rational choice theory, which are much more widely circulated.  At the same time, like all such theories, it threatens to explain so much that it explains nothing much.  So it is fortunate that after 200 pages of theory (perhaps 75 pages too long) Collins shifts his focus to three concrete examples of employing interaction rituals to understand the world--sex, social hierarchy, and the decline of smoking.  The chapter on sex is the most successful.  Collins argues that sex is an interaction ritual which builds emotional energy.  Its exclusionary context in a typical marriage makes it a sacred ritual of the marriage relationship.  Just as the religious go to church once a week to reaffirm their faith, so married couples have sex once a week to reaffirm their bond. On the other hand, for the promiscuous, the achievement of sex is symbolic of their participation in this culture, rather than of a bond with their temporary partners. The emotional energy found in sex makes it alluring, and the pervasiveness of pornography and other erotic material makes this particular form of emotional energy particularly enticing.  Thus, rather than civilization surpressing the erotic urge (a la Freud) Collins suggests our society instead fosters it.  Much less successful is the chapter on social hierarchy.  Collins claims that while the gap between rich and poor has expanded in the last thirty years, face-to-face deferrence has declined.  His image is that wealthy people cannot use their wealth to command much respect in many circumstances.  He draws on descriptions of street cultures where the strongest young men may be the most intimidating, and the wealthy just have to keep their heads down like everyone else.  Completely ignored are the many private or semi-private spaces (homes, office workspaces, malls, universities, etc) where wealthier people spend nearly all of their time, secure in the belief that conspicuous and discreet surveillance will patrol the grounds and keep undesirables out.  This chapter also lapses into the classic American sociology flaw of describing something apparently resembling US middle class culture as 'society'; immigrants with limited legal rights, for example, do not figure in his broad stroke portrait, nor does the way power stretches across national borders.  His chapter on smoking is also stimulating, if tendentious, but this review is getting a little long, so we will wrap it up here.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    The book was thought provoking and wide-ranging. It provided ...
  

*by B***K on Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2015*

The book was thought provoking and wide-ranging.  It provided new insights into both individual and group dynamics that may help in current projects.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    ... book that manages both to be sound theory and useful in a practical context
  

*by A***N on Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2015*

A rare book that manages both to be sound theory and useful in a practical context.

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*Last updated: 2026-03-13*