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Action Theories - Coggle Diagram
Action Theories
Action Theorists
- See Individuals as
'Social Actors'
who
Act
rather than
React
Say people
make their own choices
, and take their own
action
- rather than being
controlled
by
social structure
or
reacting
to it
See people's actions as key to studying society
Claim society is
constructed
from people's meanings, interpretations, behaviours and negotiations
Can be called
micro-theories
, because they look at
individuals
, rather than the big structures of society
See
Social Order
as a
Social Construction
Argue that social order isn't something generated by
institutions
, either through consensus or conflict
Social order is
part of everyday life
, and they see everyday life as a series of
interpretations
Social order is a social construction - a
product
of individuals' minds
People want to
believe
that there's order in society so they behave towards others in a way that
convinces
them that there's order
E.g.
Follow social norms
, being
polite
to each other,
not stealing
from each other
Reject
the Idea that Sociology is
Objective
If you believe that people put their
own meanings
and
labels
on the world, you also have to accept that they can all put
different labels
and
meanings
on the
same action
Every person will
interpret
an action (e.g. drinking alcohol regularly) slightly different to others depending on the meaning they attach to it
Means sociologists
can't predict
people's behaviour as easily as structural approaches would suggest
People don't passively react to external stimulation in exactly the
same way
every single time
Act differently according to the
circumstances
, and according to their own
personal opinions
Criticised
for their
subjective
and
relativist
nature
Critics worry that if the world is seen as subjective and based on assumptions and interpretations, then
nothing is true or false
- this would reduce sociology to a
mess of individual opinions
Structuration
- Combines
Structuralism
and
Social Action
Structuration theorists such as
Giddens
(1984, 1987) believe sociologists should look at both the
interactions between individuals
and the
social structures
that influence these interactions
Like structural theorists, structuration theorists say that individuals have to conform to the
rules
of
social structures
and
social systems
A lot of
actions depend on these structures
Giddens
used the example of
language
- you have to stick to the
rules
of a language to
communicate
with others
But, argues that the
structures
are
dependent
on people
living by them
- e.g. language only survives if people
use it
Structuration theorists also say that social structures can be
changed
by the actions of individuals (e.g. new words can be
added
to a language)
More like what
action theorists
say
Individuals also
respond
to the structures in
different ways
Individuals have an
awareness
of the social rules and structures and have
some level of choice
about how to react to them
Assumes that if people want to change the world, they can manage it
fairly easily
Marxists
and
Feminists
would
disagree
3 Important Action Theories
Symbolic Interactionism
- Focuses on
How We Relate to Others
Mead
(1934) claimed that most human interaction is
symbolic
E.g. When you wave at friend, a
symbol
(the wave) conveys the
meaning
of your action (a greeting)
There's a
gap
between your your friend
seeing
your symbol and them
responding
to it, during which they
interpret
your action
To do this, they must put themselves in
your position
Called
'taking the role of the other'
We learn to interpret symbols through
social interaction
, and it's this knowledge of
shared symbols
and their meanings that allows us to function as members of society
Blumer
(1969) added more detail top Mead's ideas, and divided interactionism into
3 key ideas
These meanings come from the ways in which we
relate
to others, so sometimes they can change
More specifically, we
mostly relate
to others by
taking the role of the other
Actions
aren't instinctive
, they're based on the
meanings
we attach to the world around us
Ethnomethodology
- Argues that
'Society'
is Only a
Construct
Harold Garfinkel
(1967) sees society as something that's created from the '
bottom up
'
It's not an objective structure, but something we all
construct ourselves
through our
behaviour
Studies the
methods
we use to create meanings
For
ethnomethodologists
, meanings are always potentially unclear, because they're dependent on their context - they call this
indexicality
To stop this lack of clarity from causing
chaos
, we all engage in
reflexivity
- using our
common sense
to determine the meanings of behaviour and communication, so we can maintain social order
Started with
Weber
Argued that a sociologist needs both
structural
approaches (e.g. Marxism) and
action
approaches in order to understand society
Said human behaviour needs to be described on
2 levels
The level of cause
- explains how behaviour is shaped by
objective structural factors
The level of meaning
- looks at the
subjective meanings
that people attach to their actions
E.g. Same-sex marriage was legalised in England and Wales 2014
At the
level of cause
, Tim and James get married because the
law
now allows it
Need to think about
both
to properly understand their behaviour
At the
level of meaning
they get married because of the love they
feel
for one another
Tried to
categorise
all these different possible meanings into
4 types of action
Instrumentally rational action
is based on the most efficient means of achieving a goal
Value-rational action
is taken because something is important for its own sake
Traditional action
is based on habit
Affectual action
is based on emotion
Criticisms
- Too subjective
Focuses too much on
individual
meanings, and not explaining how we develop
shared
ones
E.g. everyone knows standing up when someone enters a room is a sign of
respect
Can also be
difficult
to
classify
actions into
just one
of the 4 types