Social action
From Geography
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. At least one actor gives meaning to his behaviour by looking at the subjective experiences of another person (intention, motives and feelings) (Campbell, 1981, p.173).
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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 this 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 instead of 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.
Social action versus behaviour
Weber distinguishes action from behaviour: he states that a movement by a person is only an action when it has a subjective meaning for the person(s) involved in the movement (Campbell, 1981). A person deliberately makes the choice to perform a movement: the individual is confronted with a problem and then subjectively and actively makes the choice to solve the problem in acting in a certain way. People who believe in ‘behaviour’ think in another manner. They think when individuals are confronted with a problem, or in this case ‘the stimulus’, the person will behave as a result of the stimulus, not as a result of their own subjective deliberations. The difference between action and behaviour can basically be summarized as ‘action versus reaction’.
Social action by Werlen
According to Benno Werlen (2009), social action identifies four aspects:
References
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2010
- Campbell, T. (1981). Seven theories of human society. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Kivisto, P. (2004). Key Ideas in Sociology.
- Werlen, B. (2009) Everyday Regionalizations. In: International Encyclopedia for Human Geography. Elsevier.
Contributors
Published by Thijs Koolhof (4048385) and Tobias Geerdink (4076923)
Page outline enhanced, page enhanced and links added by Aafke Brus --AafkeBrus 09:46, 24 October 2011 (CEST)
Page improved by Lars-Olof Haverkort --LarsHaverkort 17:36, 9 September 2012 (CEST)
Edited by Anke Janssen, on 10 Octobre 2012
