Integrated Approaches

Although Weber is regarded as the original social action theorist, his sociology does not fit neatly into either structural or action approaches.

Weber emphasised the importance of understanding how people viewed the world and the subjective meanings that people held.

He rejected structural theories as too deterministic and thought that people had choice and could act to change structures, however he did not dismiss the importance of social structures altogether, especially the structures of inequality.

Giddens theory of structuation tries to combine both structure and action.

He believed that social structures allow individuals to live in society by providing a framework but individuals can shape this structure by ignoring, replacing or changing rules.

Integrated approaches have been cricised by structural theorists for overestimating the capacity that individuals have to change society and underestimating constraints.

Action theorists criticise integrated approaches for underestimating the capacity that individuals have to change society and overestimating the power of constraints.