Action theories:
MAX WEBER: social action theory
Weber: adequate sociological explanation involves 2 levels
Level of cause: objective structural factors that shape people’s behavior
Level of meaning: subjective meanings individuals attach to actions.
Eg: protestant reformation introduced Calvinism -> glorified God + promoted work
ethic -> worked systematically -> rise of capitalism,
Weber: 4 types of action:
1. Instrumentally rational action: actor calculates most efficient means of achieving
role
2. Value rational action: action towards desirable goal for actor for own sake.
3. Traditional action: customary actions, no conscious choice along with it.
4. Affectual action: action that expresses emotion (political movement)
Evaluation of Weber:
- Weber: corrective to over-emphasis on structural factors in functionalism
- Must understand actors subjective meanings if we want to explain actions well
- Schutz: too individualistic, cannot explain shared nature of meanings
- Critic of verstehen: cannot be other person as we never understood motives.
SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM:
Ability to create social world through actions/ interactions, interactions based on
meanings we give to situations
Symbol versus instincts:
Mead: behaviour not shaped by pre-programmed instincts
We respond to world by giving meanings to significant things
We have to interpret meaning before know how to respond
Taking the role of the other:
Put ourselves in the place of the other person
Develops through social interaction
Mead: to function as members of society we use shared symbols, become conscious
of how we act
Blumer: 3 principles:
1. Actions based on meanings we give to situations
2. Meanings arise from interactions (not fixed but negotiable)
3. Meanings due to interpretive procedures (taking role of the other)
Blumer we internalize expectations of others so meanings not completely fixed.
Labelling theory:
Definition of situation: Thomas: if people define a situation as real, it will have real
consequences.
We believe something to be true -> change way we act.
MAX WEBER: social action theory
Weber: adequate sociological explanation involves 2 levels
Level of cause: objective structural factors that shape people’s behavior
Level of meaning: subjective meanings individuals attach to actions.
Eg: protestant reformation introduced Calvinism -> glorified God + promoted work
ethic -> worked systematically -> rise of capitalism,
Weber: 4 types of action:
1. Instrumentally rational action: actor calculates most efficient means of achieving
role
2. Value rational action: action towards desirable goal for actor for own sake.
3. Traditional action: customary actions, no conscious choice along with it.
4. Affectual action: action that expresses emotion (political movement)
Evaluation of Weber:
- Weber: corrective to over-emphasis on structural factors in functionalism
- Must understand actors subjective meanings if we want to explain actions well
- Schutz: too individualistic, cannot explain shared nature of meanings
- Critic of verstehen: cannot be other person as we never understood motives.
SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM:
Ability to create social world through actions/ interactions, interactions based on
meanings we give to situations
Symbol versus instincts:
Mead: behaviour not shaped by pre-programmed instincts
We respond to world by giving meanings to significant things
We have to interpret meaning before know how to respond
Taking the role of the other:
Put ourselves in the place of the other person
Develops through social interaction
Mead: to function as members of society we use shared symbols, become conscious
of how we act
Blumer: 3 principles:
1. Actions based on meanings we give to situations
2. Meanings arise from interactions (not fixed but negotiable)
3. Meanings due to interpretive procedures (taking role of the other)
Blumer we internalize expectations of others so meanings not completely fixed.
Labelling theory:
Definition of situation: Thomas: if people define a situation as real, it will have real
consequences.
We believe something to be true -> change way we act.
