1 of 5

Slide Notes

think interactionism or interpretivism - what do you recall about these?

this is all about action or agency, how individuals take action rather than reacting to a set of structure

micro theory

society is a construct: meanings; behaviours; interpretations etc.

social order is about belief

sociology is subjective
DownloadGo Live

ACTION THEORIES

Published on Sep 24, 2018

No Description

PRESENTATION OUTLINE

ACTION THEORIES

a rough guide...
think interactionism or interpretivism - what do you recall about these?

this is all about action or agency, how individuals take action rather than reacting to a set of structure

micro theory

society is a construct: meanings; behaviours; interpretations etc.

social order is about belief

sociology is subjective
Photo by Jakob Owens

WEBER

1905
CAUSE/MEANING
cause = objective factor
meaning = subjective factor

Four types of action:

Instrumentally rational

Value-rational action

Traditional action

Affectual action

Criticisms: how do we get to shared from such individualism? Can we simply apply one 'type' to any action we take?

MEAD

Symbolic Interactionism (1934)
understanding symbols and giving meaning to them

interaction helps us to learn the meanings

Blumer (1981)
- actions aren't instinctive
- meanings from relationships
- 'walk a mile in someone else's shoes'
Photo by Caucas'

Garfinkel

Ethnomethodology (1967)
'bottom up' society

we create society through our actions

ethnomethodology studies how we create meaning, which might be unclear dependent on context = INDEXICALITY

reflexivity - common sense, reflecting on what happens around us
Photo by Kikishua

GIDDENS

Structuration Theory (1984, 1987)
we conform to rules but rules can change because we might choose to change them

we have a choice - AGENCY, socialisation and participating in society is PARTICIPATION it's not done to us

Criticism: how easy is it to change the world?