about society as a web of patterned interactions
among people. In Th e Sociology of Georg Simmel
(1950/1902–1917), he analyzed how social interactions
vary depending on the size of the social group.
He concluded that interaction patterns diff ered
between a dyad, a social group with two members,
and a triad, a social group with three members.
He developed formal sociology, an approach that
focuses attention on the universal recurring social
forms that underlie the varying content of social
interaction. Simmel referred to these forms as the
“geometry of social life.”
Like the other social thinkers of his day, Simmel
analyzed the impact of industrialization and urbanization
on people’s lives. He concluded that class
confl ict was becoming more pronounced in modern
industrial societies. He also linked the increase in
individualism, as opposed to concern for the group,
to the fact that people now had many cross-cutting
“social spheres”—membership in a number of organizations
and voluntary associations—rather than
having the singular community ties of the past.