Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T02:17:23.327Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - The Return to the Concept of Action and Micro–Macro Relations

Coleman and Boudon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2021

John H. Goldthorpe
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Get access

Summary

By the 1960s it was becoming increasingly apparent that while major advances were being made in survey-based quantative research, and now increasingly at a macro-social level, a theoretical and explanatory deficit remained. Criticisms of ‘variable sociology’ arose on the grounds that it was not variables but the action of individuals that made things happen, and a shift in focus ‘from factors to actors’ was urged. In this development, Coleman and Boudon, both former students of Lazarsfeld, overcame their teacher’s dislike of the Weberian concept of action, and as their sociological work progressed, notably in the field of the sociology of education, action, and in particular action that could be construed as rational, became of central importance. For Coleman, a further leading concern was with the micro-macro link: i.e. withthe way in which demonstrated macro-social regularities had to be seen and explained as the outcomes, often unintended andcomplex, of individual action and interaction. Towards the end of his career, and much influenced by Chicago economics, this led him to seek – problematically -- to go beyond middle-range theory towards a general theory of social systems. Boudon also insisted on the need to show how macrosocial regularities emerged from individual action, but his interests came to focus on the development of a theory of ‘everyday’ rationality, in terms of which the individual action generating such regularities could, following Weber, be both explained and understood. In his final works he sought to show how this conception of rationality could be extended to beliefs and – more questionably – to values.

Type
Chapter
Information
Pioneers of Sociological Science
Statistical Foundations and the Theory of Action
, pp. 166 - 189
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×