Action Theories

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  • Created by: Moesha16
  • Created on: 02-06-18 15:47
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  • Action Theories
    • We shape society
      • Weber: Social Action Theory
        • Adequate sociological explanations involve level of cause + meaning
          • Individualistic
            • Never truly understand an action
    • Symbol Interactionism
      • Society shaped by individuals
        • Mead
          • Need to see ourselves as other see us through symbols = function in society
            • Respond to world by giving meaning to things significant to us  - interpretative phase comes between the stimulus and the response
          • Blumer
            • actions based on meaning given to situation which comes from interaction (negotiable) , meanings due to interpretation
              • Actions predictable but not fixed
            • Labeling Theory
              • Situation defined as real, means has to be true = affects how we act = consequences
              • Career:  Through labeling, individual has a career running from  'symptoms'  leading to being labelled and its consequences thereafter on the individual 
              • Self-concept arises out of ability to take on role of other = acts as looking glass to us - SFP become what others see us as
          • Goffman's dramaturgical model
            • Construct self through by manipulating others impressions of us ( actors convincing performance)
              • Impression management: present particular image to audience by adjusting to their response
                • Freedom in role we play in society - don't always believe the role we play
                  • Goffman's dramaturgical model
                    • Construct self through by manipulating others impressions of us ( actors convincing performance)
                      • Impression management: present particular image to audience by adjusting to their response
                        • Freedom in role we play in society - don't always believe the role we play
        • Doesn't explain how actors create meanings
      • Phenomology
        • Husserl: world only makes sense bc we impose meaning and order on it
      • Garfinkel: Ethnomethodology
        • Interested in how social order is constructed by its members
          • Meanings are always potentially unclear (indexiclity), nothing has fixed meaning 
            • Reflexibility (common knowledge construct order) enables us to behave as if meaning is clear
              • Strive to impose order by seeking patterns even though they're just social constructs (coroner & suicide)
                • Pattern suicides are mentally ill becomes part of coroners taken-for-granted knowledge = sim. cases assumes same pattern
                  • Reflexibility (common knowledge construct order) enables us to behave as if meaning is clear
                    • Strive to impose order by seeking patterns even though they're just social constructs (coroner & suicide)
                      • Pattern suicides are mentally ill becomes part of coroners taken-for-granted knowledge = sim. cases assumes same pattern
          • Craib - findings trivial bc taken-for-granted rules turn out not to be a surprise
        • Giddens: Structure & Action
          • One can't exist without the other
            • Structures make our actions possible e.g. rules of language must be obeyed to understand it
              • Depends on action e.g. language wouldn't exist if no one used it + create new
          • Rules + resources can be reproduced or changed by human action
            • reflectively monitor our actions and deliberately choose a new course of action = consequences
              • Society's rules contain a stock of knowledge about how to lives (need feel world orderly)
                • underestimates the capacity of structures  to resist change - e.g. slaves may wish to abolish slavery but lack the power to do so  
            • Society's rules contain a stock of knowledge about how to lives (need feel world orderly)
              • underestimates the capacity of structures  to resist change - e.g. slaves may wish to abolish slavery but lack the power to do so  

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