Generating Symbolic Interaction

Production systems are ordered sets of if-then rules linking knowledge and action. The authors show how these systems, developed and applied in artificial intelligence and cognitive science, can be used to construct empirically based symbolic interactionist models of situated human interaction. The authors argue that production system models enhance the conceptual clarity and formal analytic capabilities of key ideas in Herbert Blumer's methodological directives for sociology's symbolic interactionist perspective. The authors present both a general discussion and outline of production system model building and a case study in which they evaluate a model for the detailed analysis of customer-waitperson interactions in a restaurant setting.