Social Action Theory

Social Action Theory

1. Weber

   • 'Level of cause' - external structure influences actions
   • 'Level of Meaning' - subjective, individual interpretations
   • Types of Action
   • Evaluation
     • Too individualistic - shared meanings
     • Typology is difficult to apply or too restrictive
     • Can never truly understand their motives

2. Symbolic Interactionism

   • Symbol versus instincts
     • Taking the role of the other - based on experience and prior learning (Socialization)
     • Interpretive Phase
   • Blumer
   • Labeling Theory
     • SFP
     • Looking glass self
   • Dramaturgical Model
     • Impression Management
       • Roles - Script - Front Stage - Back Stage - Props
     • Roles
       • Role distance
         • Roles are loosely scripted by society and have freedom in how we play them
   • Evaluation
     • Loose collection of ideas rather than an explanatory theory
     • Ignores wider structures
       • Interactionist questionnaire - indentified concepts they felt were essential, most popular were 'role', 'self' and 'interaction'. Only two chose 'power' or 'class'.
     • Actions preformed unconsciously
     • Everyone plays both actor and audience, and interactions are unrehearsed
     • Fails to explain how actors create meanings

3. Phenomenology

   • Typification
     • Awareness through Socialisation
       • Allows us to communicate effectively. Accurate individual responses, stabilize meanings of how to act
   • Natural Attitude
     • Assume unknown will perform a whole series of operations in particular sequence.

4. Ethnomethodology

   • Indexicality: clear ideas that we share, but they can change
   • Reflexivity: Commonsense understanding
   • Evaluation
     • Actively construct order and meaning, rather than just being puppets.
     • 'Uncovering' taken-for-granted rules that aren't a surprise to anyone.
     • No particular reason to accept EM's views
       • If EM argues everyone creates order and meaning by identifying patterns and producing explanatiosn that are essentially fictions.
     • People share wider concepts of society.
     • 'Commonsense knowledge' is ruling-class ideology

5. Giddens Structuration

   • Combine Structure and Action to understand behaviour
   • Evaluation
     • Capacity of structures to resist change.
     • Isn't really a theory, doesn't explain society, only describes things we'll find when we study society
     • Fails to apply his theory to large-scale structures like economy and the state

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