Social action theory and interpretivism
Definitions
Free will: the ability to control and choose what decisions you make and how you act. Absence of social facts.
Determinism: theory that all events, including moral choices, are completely determined by previously existing causes. Precludes free will.
Social Action Theory (SAT)
Micro approach- focuses on small scale face-to-face interactions.
Focuses on individuals as they believe individuals control society, not vice versa.
They look at how small things make us act instead of how the determinism of society affects our actions and how the meaning we give to things changes our actions and power dynamics.
E.g. how someone’s behaviour changes after the are labelled as a deviant and the steps that the person who classified them as such took before classifying them, and the power dynamic between these two people.
Belief that:
We have free will and choice (agency).
Individuals can shape society through their actions and interactions
Other sociologists believe we have free will but this is limited by society
Labelling is deterministic
Social behaviour is not randomly created, it is influenced by social and historical contexts.
Symbolic interactionalism
People’s self-concepts are based on their understanding of how others perceive them (the looking glass self)
We act towards others on the basis of how we interpret their symbolic action
The same action can be interpreted differently by different people- we need to understand these specific meanings to understand people’s actions
Neber (1864-1920), died of Spanish flu
People hold meanings about the world and consciously act on the basis of those meanings
Behaviour is meaning attached to actions
Max Weber: Verstehen (type of sociology)
Observation alone is not enough to understand human action, we need empathetic understanding
Aim of sociological investigation should be the creation of an understanding of the meanings, motives and values involved in social actions (gaining verstehen)
Finding out why people do what they do
Goffman’s Dramaturgical Theory
People are actors on a ‘social stage’ who actively create an impression of themselves
When we act in a social world, we put on a ‘front’ in order to project a certain image of ourselves (part of our ‘social identity’)
To create this front we manipulate the setting in which we perform (room), our appearance (clothes) and our manner (emotional demeanour).
Modern societies
Encourage ‘instrumental action’
We’re encouraged to do things in the most efficient way, not the most moral way (value-action)