Perspectives on Sociological Theory, Vol. 2: Micro-Sociological Theory

179 Pages·1985·7.33 MB·English

SAGE STUDIES IN INTERNATIONAL
SOCIOLOGY
Editorial Board, 1980-85
Fernando Cardoso (President of the ISA), CEBRAP, Brazil
Margaret Archer (Chairperson, ISA Publications Committee and
Editorial Board), University of Warwick, UK
Celine Saint-Pierre (Chairperson, SSIS Editorial Board),
a
Universite du Quebec Montreal, Canada
Akinsola Akiwowo, University of Ife, Nigeria
Syed Hussein Alatas, University of Singapore, Singapore
Erik Allardt, University of Helsinki, Finland
Samir Amin, CODESRIA, Senegal
Michel Bassand, Universite de Lausanne, Switzerland
James Beckford (Editor of Current Sociology! La Sociologie
Contemporaine), Durham University, UK
Manuel Castells, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Michael Cernea, World Bank, USA
Suma Chitnis, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India
Orlando Fals Borda, Bogotd, Colombia
Lim Teck Ghee, University Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
Anthony Giddens, King's College, Cambridge, UK
MarieR. Haug, Case Western Reserve University, USA
Artur Meier, Academy of Educational Sciences, German
Democratic Republic
Gennadiy Osipov, Institute for Sociological Research, USSR
Alejandro Partes, The Johns Hopkins University, USA
Peta Sheriff, McMaster University, Canada
Joji Watanuki, Sophia University, Japan
Anton C. Zijderveld, Tilburg University, The Netherlands
Micro-Sociological Theory
Perspectives on Sociological Theory
Volume 2
Edited by
H.J. Helle and S.N. Eisenstadt
~ SAGE Studies in International Sociology 34
~ sponsored by the International Sociological Association/ISA
Copyright© 1985 by the
International Sociological Association!ISA
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British Library Cataloguing In Publication Data
Perspectives on sociological theory,-(Sage studies in international sociology; v.
33-34)
1. Sociology
I. Eisenstadt, S.N. II. Helle, H.J.
301'.01 HM24
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 85-050094
ISBN <4039--9714-{) (V.2)
ISBN <4039--9715-9 (V.2) Pbk
Reprinted 1986
Printed by J.W. Arrowsmith Ltd., Bristol, UK.
Contents
•
Table of Contents of Micro-Sociological Theory vi
General introduction to perspectives on sociological theory
S.N. Eisenstadt and H.J. Helle vii
Introduction to micro-sociological theory
H.J. Helle 1
1 The classical foundations of
micro-sociological paradigms
H.~&& 9
2 Unanswered questions in the convergence between
structuralist and interactionist role theories
n
&~H.Th~
3 Role theories and socialization research
Hans Joas 37
4 The foundations of symbolic interactionism reconsidered
G. David Johnson and J. Steven Picou 54
5 Goffman's frame analysis and modern
micro-sociological paradigms
J ef Verhoeven 71
6 Out of ethnomethodology
Arthur W. Frank 101
7 Talk and identity: some convergences in micro-sociology
Paul Atkinson 117
8 Micro-sociological theories of emotion
Steven L. Gordon 133
9 Theoretical and metatheoretical themes in
expectation states theory
1
Joseph Berger, David G. Wagner and Morris Zelditch, Jr 148
Notes on contributors 169
Table of Contents of
Macro-Sociological Theory
Table of contents of Micro-Sociological Theory
General introduction to perspectives on sociological theory
S. N. Eisenstadt and H.J. Helle
Introduction to macro-sociological theory
S.N. Eisenstadt
1 Macro-societal analysis-background, development
and indications
S. N. Eisenstadt
2 The 'individualist dilemma' in phenomenology and
interactionism
Jeffery C. Alexander
3 Structuration versus morphogenesis
MargaretS. Archer
4 Values and power in macro-sociological processes and
formations
Fran~ois Bourricaud
5 Political powers and class structure
Torcuato S. Di Tel/a
6 On the significance of de-differentiation
Edward A. Tiryakian
7 The rise of social scientific Marxism and the
problems of class analysis
Goran Therborn
8 Typology in the methodological approach to the
study of social change
Ken'ichi Tominaga
Notes on contributors
General introduction
to perspectives on sociological theory
S.N. Eisenstadt and H.J. Helle
The essays on macro- and micro-sociological analysis collected in
these two volumes - most of which were presented at the symposia
on Macro- and Micro-Sociological Analysis at the Tenth World
Congress of Sociology in Mexico, in August 1983-present from
different vantage points some of the major dimensions of theoreti
cal controversy in sociology in general.
These controversies - and the papers presented here - have
several major, closely interconnected thrusts which cut across
macro- and micro-sociological analysis alike. First, they indicate an
important shift from concerns that were dominant in the 1950s and
early 1960s, especially under the influence of the structural
functional school and the way in which it was accepted in the
sociological community. This shift implied that no institutional
order or any structure of social interactions in general, is any longer
taken as given, nor explained by its needs and configurations as
shaped, above all, by the extent of its differentiation; nor its
functioning analysed according to the contribution of its different
parts. Instead there developed a strong emphasis on the process of
construction of such order.
Institutional orders and situations of interaction are more and
more seen as being constructed by the activities of different actors
- groups and individuals -in different social areas and situations.
Hence there also took place a shift to the analysis of the processes
and mechanisms through which the different aspects of social order
of macro- and micro-situations alike are being constructed by such
activities.
Second, and closely connected with this shift to the analysis of the
construction of patterns of social institutions and of institutional
order, there has taken place another shift- namely the emphasis
on the autonomy of the major social actors. Individual social actors
are seen as being of crucial importance in the very process of the
construction of social roles, structures and orders and it is stressed
that they cannot be subsumed under these roles or structures.
Indeed, potentially they are also creators of roles, of their
meanings, of the definitions of situations. Hence, a major problem
viii Micro-sociological theory
here is to identify the different levels and types of such structures
or counter-structures.
Third, also of special importance in this context has been the
strong emphasjs on the dimension of power and of the symbolic
construction of reality in the shaping of situations of interaction and
institutional orders.
The studies presented in these two volumes bring out these major
theoretical themes in a great variety of ways and from different
points of view - but they do indicate that these problems are
common to all areas of sociological endeavour - above all to
macro-and micro-sociological analysis alike.
Margaret Archer, Ralph Turner, Jef Verhoeven and others spell
out in their chapters that macro- and micro-theory show promising
signs of convergence after too many decades of senseless separa
tion. It will be the task of historians of sociology to retrace the
curious steps the field has taken in theory formation during the
century from about 1850 to 1950. Here we can but sketch how a
one-sided selection from the pioneering work of Comte, Spencer,
Marx, Durkheim, Simmel and Weber caused unnecessary narrow
ness in the continuity of sociological theory, and how partisanship
resulted in separating the field into camps whose members looked at
each other with, at least, suspicion. One of the fissions that in
retrospect seem particularly strange is the separation of macro-and
micro-theory.
The classical sociologists, all of whom were born and received
their academic training during the nineteenth century, have been
very sensitive to problems of epistemology. Given the sound
philosophical background - which Marx and Simmel of course had
as trained philosophers, and which Comte, Spencer, Durkheim and
Weber acquired before they started writing sociology- none of
them could ignore the problem that what reveals itself to superficial
sensual perception is certainly not all there is to know in the context
of social reality. Faced with the dilemma that, in many respects,
what could be known reliably was not very relevant, and what
seemed of great importance was impossible to find out with·
sufficient precision, the great pioneers of our field did therefore not
react with naivete, but instead were prepared to make conscious
decisions.
No matter which direction their decisions would take, the
classical sociologists remained conscious of the dilemma that Plato
had already captured in his parable of the cave, but their successors
tended to misrepresent as a clean solution to an epistemological
problem what from Comte to Weber was taken to be just the lesser
of two evils. And this was probably the beginning of methodological
General introduction ix
cleavages of the kind that this volume is designed to overcome.
Various brands of Marxism have thrived, but Marx is quoted as not
wanting to be counted among the Marxists. Comte coined the
concept of the positive stage in the evolution of human knowledge.
He, as well as Spencer, was a follower of Francis Bacon in the desire
to collect data on nature in order to gain control of nature, but with
their incredibly rich studies in history and comparative culture,
neither of them would fit the strict rules of modern behaviouristic
positivism.
Durkheim wanted to draw a sharp line between sociology and
psychology; to him the whole had a reality of its own that could not
be explained in terms of individual parts that formed it. In his books
of 1893 to 1897 he does lay the foundation for modern functional
ism, but in 1912, in his great study on religion, he shows that the
origin of the sacred cannot be nature as wind and lightning, nor as
the sun, the moon or the planets, that it cannot be the dreams and
hallucinations of individual sorcerers. Instead, Durkheim claims
nothing less than that the sacred is generated and maintained in the
interaction of the human cult. And Max Weber could be used
selectively by almost anyone in support of his version of theory as
long as Weber's indebtedness to Simmel was ignored, and as long as
Simmel was reduced to being the founder of formal sociology.
Fortunately, the field of sociological theory has moved beyond
these misrepresentations, and as partisan, selective and one-sided
readings of the classics become obsolete, many of the schisms grow
to be part of the less pleasant aspects of the history of the discipline.
The cleavage between different methodological schools, and cer
tainly the confrontation between micro-and macro-theory belong to
the past, and the following pages are designed to help us recognize
that in our future projects as students of sociology.
Introduction tQ micro-sociological theory
H.J. Helle
It is the objective of this volume on micro-sociology to contribute to
the stock-taking and comparison of the most significant modern
approaches to micro-theory and social psychology, and to demon
strate the numerous trends towards convergence with macro
theoretical paradigms. Since the 1960s sociology in general has
passed through a phase of new beginnings and experimentation with
novel approaches. The time has now come to take another look
from a more distanced viewpoint in order to bring about a
comparative appraisal with the intention of deciding what seems
useful enough to be retained and developed further, and what ought
to be abandoned. However, it is not the objective of these following
chapters to take any such decision for the reader.
Georg Simmel's classical formulations of the principle of inter
relatedness (Wechselwirkung), of the 1-you relationship as the
foundation for 'verstehen', and of his basic epistemological premises
spelled out in his book, The Problems of the Philosophy of History
(1892), are taken as a point of departure. Simmel is presented as an
author in whose work macro- and micro-sociological paradigms are
indissolubly interwoven, who contributed significantly to the
establishment of the Chicago school, mediated by the teaching of
Albion Small, Robert Park, Everett Hughes and others, and whose
methodological premises coincide largely with those of Wilhelm
Dilthey, Wilhelm Wundt, William James, Max Weber and George
H. Mead. Simmel can also legitimately be seen as a precursor of
role theory (compare his essay 'Zur Philosophie des Schauspielers'/
Towards a Philosophy of the Actor, 1908).
The modern state of the art in role theory is discussed by Ralph
H. Turner. He demonstrates that several of the most fundamental
interactionist assumptions remain in sharp contrast to structuralist
assumptions: that the fundamental character of role behaviour is the
effort to construct and execute a meaningful and rewarding
complement of behaviour in a system of social relationships; that
roles are gestalts rather than collections of discrete behaviours; that
the allocation of. persons to roles is a matter of continuing
negotiation in even the most rigid organizational context; that these
and other questions remain unanswered, but that there has been a