Social Action Theory: A Sociological Analysis

Over the course of history, various developments took place which led to the formation of sociology. The Enlightenment was a period of philosophical enquiry starting around the sixteenth century with the rise of the scientific method. Before this society and the nature of reality had largely been governed by the teachings of the church and was under state control. The enlightenment was based on rationalist principles, values of empiricism and the belief that the world could be better understood through carrying out experiments. Enlightenment thinkers such as Kant (1724-1804) challenged the structure of society with people like Voltaire (1694-1778) promoting ideas of individuality and free will, encouraging people to break away from the old …show more content…
It is the process which ensures that people conform to their culture and establishes the mechanisms for dealing with deviant behaviour (Haralambos, Holborn, Chapman and Moore, 2013). Our culture employs sanctions as part of maintaining social order. These can be positive incentives or can be negative formal punishments such as being put in jail. Social Action theory is a micro perspective which views individuals in society as being like social actors who all play important social roles. It emphasises the importance of individuals and looks at the meanings and motivations behind social behaviour as well as at how we interpret these things. Weber believed there are different types of social actions, including zweckrational which meant logical actions, wertrational where we are aiming towards a goal, affective action which can be driven by our emotions and traditional action where we are guided by our past habits. According to Weberian theory, social order is a concept which is created and designed by individuals who make up society (Fulcher and Scott 2011). For Weber (1864-1920), we are all guided to behave in the particular ways we do by societies structures on account of the power they hold over us. Weber believed that bureaucracies were an important part of this. These are organisations of people with a hierarchy of authority which carry out rational actions in order to attain their overall goals. Through bureaucracies those in superior positions will exercise legitimate authority to maintain social order, controlling and disciplining everyone else (Haralambos, Holborn, Chapman and Moore, 2013). This can be through charismatic authority where we follow a person’s instructions based on their charisma, those in traditional positions of authority such as those in the police or rational