Social action

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Revision as of 14:32, 21 October 2010

Social action refers to an act orientated to an individual, agent, and, according to Max Weber, becomes social when the acting individual takes into account the action and reaction his behavior causes.

Social action and Max Weber

The concept of social action was primarily developed by Weber. Weber accepts and assumes that humans vary their actions according to social contexts and how it will affect other people. The theory of social action is therefore an attempt to observe how human behavior relates to cause and effect in the social realm, in other words Weber wants to understand (verstehen) why and how humans react in certain situations. By doing this he distinghuished himself from sociologists such as Emile Durkheim, who focused more on social structures than on individual acts.

Social action theory

Agents, individuals or institutions, that take action toward specific ends in society. Agents react to social pressure, which determines their actions, in some instances their goals are determined by the influence of society. They have however also individual and subjective goals and desires.

Social actions are meaningful within the context of the purpose and intentions of individual human beings (agents). Such purposes and intentions are however understood in context of the background of historical conditions and social structures.

The social action theory by Weber tries to explain how actors and society interact. According to Weber society is largely the consequence of the actions of individual agents. But as society has a role in determining what kind of things are important for those actors. Individuals are considered both constitutive and at least partially constituted by their societies.

SOURCE:

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2010

Seven Theories of Human Society, Tom Campbell 1981.

Key Ideas in Sociology, Peter Kivisto 2004.

This page is made by Thijs Koolhof (4048385) and Tobias Geerdink (4076923).