Action theories

Took an interpretivist approach to sociology and focused on the small scale interactions which shape society and its institutions 

Weber said we need to take both structural and action theories into account when trying to undestand human behaviours 

• level of cause: structural factors
• level of meaning - meanings attached by an individual 

Weber said we are all actors and attach different meanings to our behaviour and these can be classified into four groups:

• instrumentally rational actions
  • Calculating the most efficient means of a goal 
• value-rational action
  • Actions to a goal which are desirable in their own right
•  traditional action
  • Customary or ritualistic actions which are done because it is the norm 
• affectual action
  • actions to express emotion 

Mead

• symbols have subjective meanings and can change over time. 
• We do not act on instinct and instead take the role of the other so we can see ourselves as they see us (looking glass self)

Blumer

• actions are based on the meanings which we give to symbols
• meanings arise through interaction
• meanings are given as a result of interpretive measures

Goffman

• we are all actors on a stage and we actively construct ourselves through
  •  Presentation of self
  • impression management 

Phenomenology is the branch of philosophy which questions how we can have definitive knowledge of reality outside of our minds

Husserl

• we impose meanings and order by constructing mental categories which ensure that the world makes sense to us 

Schultz

• goes against Husserl's idea and said that we share categories and concepts with others which allow us to organise our experiences. These are called typification and they can help us stabilise meanings and allow agreement

structuralists reject phenomenology because they argue that structural factors have a greater impact on the individual 

Garfinkel said there is no actual social world 

indexicality - nothing has a fixed meaning and can be linked to the breakdown of social communication 

reflexivity - using common sense or previous knowledge to prevent indexicality (similar to typifications)

Giddens combined structure and action theories in this theory 

duality of structure:

• structures are created by actions
• structures make actions possible