Action Theory (Sociology)

The theory of action is a microsociological theory , with the help of which different actions can be examined and explained. “ Actions ” in this sense are motivated, in contrast to the purely reactive “ behavior ”.

Details

The social action (action or inaction) is sociologically considered as a manifestation of socialized man, that is by the elements of the social order (such as institutions , traditions , organizations ) determined by which and in which man has to live and where and which man has become man in the sense of a social being.

The term "theory of action" denotes (often in summary) different sociological, psychological, scientific theory-based and didactic approaches:

• Ethnomethodology
• Phenomenological Sociology
• Symbolic interactionism
• Praxeology
• Understanding sociology
• z. T. structural functionalism
• Rational Decision Theory

Systems theory is often mentioned as the opposite of action theory.

development

• materialistic (e.g. Ferdinand Tönnies )
• collectivist (e.g. Émile Durkheim )
• Individualistic (e.g. Max Weber )
• Structural functionalism : Very broad theories of action were developed by sociologists such as Talcott Parsons from work psychology research and further generalized in the direction of systems theory .
• Phenomenology ( Alfred Schütz )
• Behavior theory
• Methodological individualism
• Systems theory (Luhmann)

See also

• Actor
• Expectation of value theory

literature

• Niklas Luhmann (1981): Action Theory and Systems Theory. In: Sociological Enlightenment 3 (pp. 50–66). VS publishing house for social sciences.
• Siegwart Lindenberg : Homo socio-economicus: the emergence of a general model of man in the social sciences . In: Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics , 146, 1990, pp. 727-748.
• Bernhard Miebach : Sociological theory of action. An introduction. Opladen (1991).
• Karl-Heinz Hillmann : Dictionary of Sociology (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 410). 4th, revised and expanded edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-520-41004-4 , pp. 319-321.
• Jürgen Habermas : Theory of communicative action (Vol. 1: Action rationality and social rationalization ; Vol. 2: On the critique of functionalist reason ). Frankfurt a. M. 1981, ISBN 3-518-28775-3 .
• Geert Keil : acting and causing . Frankfurt 2000 ISBN 978-3-46503072-0
• Hermann Korte : Sociology . Konstanz 2004, ISBN 3-82522518-6 , pp. 96-98.
• Action theories. In: Microsoft Encarta