Topic 8: Social Action Theories

What are Weber’s two levels of explanation?

• cause (structural): religion, economy shape behaviour

• meaning: subjective motives behind actions

How does Weber explain the rise of capitalism?

Protestant ethic: Calvinists saw work as religion calling → disciplined labour + saving → capitalism

AO2: working to glorify God leads to economic change

What is instrumentally rational action?

Goal-oriented, most efficient method, cost vs benefit

AO2: revising for good grades

What is value rational action?

Based on beliefs/ morals, done because it is right, may not be the most effective method

AO2: praying to go heaven

What is traditional action?

Based on habit/custom

AO2: celebrating religious festivals yearly

What is affective action?

Based on emotion, not logic

AO2: crying at a funeral

What are criticisms of Weber?

• Schutz: too individualistic, ignores shared meanings

• Typology overlaps

• Cannot fully understand motives

What is symbolic interactionism?

Society created through everyday interaction based on meanings

What did Mead argue?

• Humans act on meaning not instinct

• Interpretive phase: stimulus → interpret → respond

• Role-taking

• Self develops through interaction (AO2: role playing in childhood)

What did Blumer argue?

• actions based on meanings

• meanings come from interaction

• meanings are changeable

• people have choice (not puppets) (AO2: gestures differ across cultures)

What are criticisms of interactionism?

• ignores structure (class inequality)

• cannot explain patterns

• Reynolds: too individualistic

• Ethnomethodologists: doesn’t explain how meanings are created

What is labelling theory?

Labels shape behaviour and identity

What is the definition of the situation?

Thomas: If defined as real → real consequences

AO2: pupil labelled troublesome behaves that way

What is the looking-glass self?

Cooley: See ourselves through others → self-fulfilling prophecy

AO2: treated as deviant → become deviant

What is deviant career?

Becker & Lemert: series of stages after labelling → harder to return to normal

AO2: labelled patient moves through stages

What is a criticism of labelling theory?

too deterministic; lavels may not always affect behaviour

What is Goffman’s dramaturgical model?

Society = performance

What is frontstage & backstage?

Frontstage: public performance

Backstage: true self

AO2: work vs home behaviour

What is impression management?

Controlling how others see us

AO2: changing tone/language for audience

What are Goffman’s views on roles?

• Roles are flexible, performed

• Role distance (gap between self and role)

AO2: actor vs character

What is phenomenology?

Reality only known through how it appears to us

What did Husserl argue?

World only makes sense because we give it meaning

What did Schutz argue?

• Typifications: shared categories

• Lifeworld: shared meanings

• Recipe knowledge

• Natural attitude (AO2: trusting systems like posting a letter)

What did Berger & Luckmann argue?

Reality becomes external and constraining

AO2: religion → institutions shaping behaviour

What is ethnomethodology?

Social order created through everyday interaction

What did Garfinkel argue about social order?

order is an accomplishment, created bottom-up

What is indexicality?

meanings depend on context

AO2: raising hand means different things

What is reflexivity?

Using common sense to create shared meaning

What are breaching experiments?

Disrupt norms to reveal social rules

AO2: acting like guest at home

What did Garfinkel say about suicide statistics?

Social constructions based on coroners’ interpretations

AO2: using patterns like mental illness

What are criticisms of ethnomethodology?

• Ignores structure and power

• Craib: findings are obvious

• Denies wider society

What is the difference between structure and action theories?

Structural: deterministic

Action: based on meaning and choice

What is Giddens’ structuration theory?

Duality of structure: structure and action linked

What are rules and resources?

Giddens:

• Rules: norms, laws

• Resources: economic + power

What is ontological security?

Stability from routines and predictability

AO2: daily habits

How does social change occur?

Giddens:

• Reflexivity (questioning traditions)

• Unintended consequences (AO2: Weber - religion → capitalism)

What are criticisms of Giddens?

• Archer: underestimates structure

• Craib: too descriptive

• Doesn’t explain large-scale structures