Affectual action

From Geography

Affectual action is one of the four Ideal Types of human action which have been developed by Max Weber. The other ideal types of human action which Weber distinguished are traditional action, value action and goal action. He developed these ideal types to show that you can find patterns in the intentions of human activity. Even though these types are most of the time mixed in an activity (Ernste, personal communication, 2012). Weber sees these types of action to be ways in which people give meaning to their lives (Campbell, 1981).

Affectual action, or affective rational motive, refers to action which is undertaken, because one feels an emotional urge to act that way. These kind of activities are taken place because of emotional needs. For example, you feel like in a trance and you just could not get enough of the sun-set, the beauty of that place (Ernste, personal communication, 2012).

References

• Ernste, H. (2012) Personal communication, Spatial Action: Max Weber. 12-9-2012

• Campbell, T. (1981) Seven Theories of Human Society. Clarendon Press, Oxford. Chapter 8: Max Weber: An Action Theory.

Contributers

Created by Malou van Woerkum, october 6th 2012

Edited by Marjolein Kouwenhoven, october 25th 2012