Editing Role (section)

===Role in interactionist or social action theory===
In interactionist social theory, the concept of role is crucial. The interactionist definition of "role" pre-dates the functionalist one. A role, in this conception, is not fixed or prescribed but something that is constantly negotiated between individuals in a tentative, creative way. [[philosophy|Philosopher]] [[George Herbert Mead]] explored roles in his seminal 1934 work, ''Mind, self and society''.<ref>
{{cite book
 | last=Mead | first=George H.
 | author-link=George Herbert Mead
 | year=1934
 | title=Mind, Self, and Society
 | url=https://archive.org/details/mindselfsocietyf00mead | url-access=registration | publisher=University of Chicago Press
 | location=Chicago
}}</ref> Mead's main interest was the way in which children learn how to become a part of society by imaginative ''role-taking'', observing and mimicking others. This is always done in an interactive way: it's not meaningful to think of a role for one person alone, only for that person as an individual who is both co-operating and competing with others. Adults behave similarly: taking roles from those that they see around them, adapting them in creative ways, and (by the process of social interaction) testing them and either confirming them or modifying them. This can be most easily seen in encounters where there is considerable [[ambiguity]], but is nevertheless something that is part of all social interactions: each individual actively tries to "define the situation" (understand their role within it); choose a role that is advantageous or appealing; play that role; and persuade others to support the role.