Action theory Flashcards
What are action theories?
-‘Micro-level
-Bottom-up
-Voluntaristic
What action type does Weber look at?
Social action theory
What do we need to combine?
- Level of cause- structural factors
- Level of meaning- subjective meanings of individual’s actions
What does Weber believe in?
Verstehen- empathy
What 4 types of action did Weber identify? (VAIT)
- Value-rational- action towards a goal that an actor regards as desirable
- Affectual- emotion
- Instrumentally rational- most efficient means of achieving a goal
- Traditional- habits/customs
What is a strength of Weber?
His ideas are a valuable corrective to the over-emphasis on structural factors seen in functionalism
What are criticisms of Weber?
- Individualistic- fails to explain the shared nature of meanings
- Verstehen is too simplistic- we will never truly understand someone’s motives
What action theory does G.H. Mead look at?
Symbolic interactionism
What does Mead suggest is a difference between humans and animals?
Unlike animals, whose behaviour is shaped by pre-programmed instincts, humans respond to the world by giving meanings to things
What phase do humans have?
Interpretive phase
How do human’s interpret other people’s meanings?
Take the role of the other- put ourselves in the place of the other person
What three key principles did Blumer identify?
- Actions are based on the meanings we give to situations, people etc.
- Meanings are not fixed
- Meanings are the result of interpretive procedures
What is the best-known application of interactionism?
Labelling theory
What three key concepts underpin labelling theory?
- Definition of the situation= if people define a situation as real, then it will have real consequences
- Looking-glass self= Cooley: others act as a looking glass to us
- Career- applied to groups like marijuana users
What is Goffman’s dramaturgical model?
Describes how we actively construct our ‘self’ by manipulating other people’s impressions of us
How do we complete ‘impression management’?
Language, facial expressions, props like dress etc.
What does ‘role distance’ suggest?
We are not really the roles we play- we have a good deal of freedom in how we play them
What is a strength of symbolic interactionism?
Avoids determinism of functionalism- people create society through their choices and meanings
Why is it criticised?
- labelling= deterministic
- Ignores wider social structures such as class and poverty by only focussing on face-to face interactions
- Not all action is meaningful e.g. traditional action is performed unconsciously
What does phenomenology mean?
All we known about the world is what our senses tell us about it
Who developed it?
Husserl
What does he argue?
The world only makes sense because we construct mental categories to classify information information from our senses
What are typifications?
Schurz
-Shared categories
-Stabilise and clarify meanings to ensure we all ‘speak the same language’
What is ethnomethodology?
Methods used to produce meanings to make sense of the world
Who talks about it?
Garfinkel
What does Garfinkel argue?
Social order is an accomplishment- members of society actively construct using their commonsense knowledge
What type of reality does Phenomenology and ethnomethodology see society as?
Inter-subjective reality
Who talks about Structuration theory?
Giddens
What does it combine?
Structure and action
What does Giddens argue?
There is a ‘duality of structure’ i.e. through our actions we reproduce our structure over time
What is an example of structuration?
Language- language is a structure e.g. set of grammar rules to obey in order to be understood
-However, it also depends on action- language would not exist if no one used it
Who criticises Giddens?
Archer: Giddens underestimates the capacity of structures to resist change e.g. poor may wish to abolish poverty but lack the power/resources to do so
