Toward a Structural Theory of Action. Network Models of Social Structure, Perception and Action

382 Pages·1982·8.71 MB·English

by  Peter H. Rossi (Eds.)

QUANTITATIVE STUDIES IN SOCIAL RELATIONS
Consulting Editor: Peter H. Rossi
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS
AMHERST, MASSACHUSETTS
In Preparation
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The list of titles in this series continues on the last page of this volume
QUANTITATIVE STUDIES IN SOCIAL RELATIONS
(Continued from page ii)
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AND CRIME: Experimental Evidence
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GRAMS: Theory, Practice, and Politics
Toward a
Structural Theory of Action
Network Models of
Social Structure, Perception, and Action
RONALD S. BURT
Department of Sociology and Center for the Social Sciences
Columbia University
New York, New York
1982
ACADEMIC PRESS
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Burt, Ronald 5.
Toward a structural theory of action.
(Quantitative studies in social relations)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Social action. 2. Social structure.
3. Structuralism. 4. Social perception. 5. Network
analysis (Planning) I. Title. II. Series.
HM51.B96 302 82-6790
ISBN 0-12-147150-0 AACR2
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
82 83 84 85 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Preface
My experiences with people lead me to hold two beliefs as a fruitful
foundation for constructing systematic social theory. First, people as in­
dividual or group actors are purposive, in the sense of using their resources
to realize their interests. Second, these purposive actors pursue their in­
terests in the context of social structure generated by the division of labor
in society. The intersection of these two beliefs provides my premise for
a structural theory of action: Actors are purposive under social structural
constraint. Steps toward action theory based on this premise are reported
here.
This book is about social structure, perceptions, and action. It is about
these items as concepts. It is about strategies through which these items
guide empirical research. I propose a model of status/role-sets as patterns
of relationships defining positions in the stratification space—the social
topology—of a system of actors. Processes are proposed by which positions
in this space generate actor interests as perceptual norms and feelings of
relative deprivation or advantage. Processes are proposed by which the
pattern of relationships defining a position creates constraint on the freedom
with which actors occupying the position can realize their interests. These
processes, captured in mathematical models, are used to describe two stra­
tegically important systems of actors: large American corporations involved
IX
X PREFACE
in manufacturing in 1967 and elite experts in sociological methodology as
of 1975. A detailed overview of the book can be obtained quickly. Chapter
1 introduces the goals and organization of the book. The final section of
each subsequent chapter summarizes the chapter's content leading to the
concluding chapter, Chapter 9, in which I contrast alternative approaches
to action theory with the structural perspective represented here.
I am writing to sociologists pursuing basic as well as applied interests.
I review alternative models of the substantive phenomena addressed here
and discuss methodological issues invoked by their application in empirical
research. Numerical illustration is provided for the models proposed. These
illustrations have been a convenient basis for out-of-class assignments when
I have covered this material in seminars on mathematical sociology and
structural sociology. Although I explicitly address myself to sociologists,
the proposals are not discipline-specific. I hope that anthropologists, econ­
omists, political scientists, and psychologists will find something of value,
since I have freely drawn upon their research and theories.
Acknowledgments
The work reported here has been mainly supported by the National
Science Foundation and carried out in facilities provided by the University
of Chicago, the University of California at Berkeley, and the State Uni­
versity of New York at Albany. My support at the University of Chicago
was provided by a National Science Foundation grant to James S. Coleman,
who generously supported my research activities at the National Opinion
Research Center; a National Institute of Mental Health Trainee Fellowship;
and a small grant from the Director's Fund, then administered by James
A. Davis for the National Opinion Research Center. The bulk of the work
reported here has been carried out at the University of California at Berke­
ley. It has been supported by two grants from the National Science Foun­
dation (SOC77-22938, SOC79-25728) administered through the Survey Re­
search Center, and it has received modest support for computer programming
assistance from the Committee on Research. The Survey Research Center's
facilities have been invaluable to me in pursuing my research interests. I
owe a special debt to its directors, Merrill Shanks and his successor Percy
Tannenbaum, for facilitating my access to the Center's resources. Finally,
Nan Lin and Ronald A. Farrell made it possible for me to spend a highly
productive leave of absence at the State University of New York at Albany,
from 1978 to 1979. The special conditions provided there allowed me to
complete a first draft of the book.
XII ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book grows out of my doctoral dissertation submitted in 1977 to the
Department of Sociology, University of Chicago. Three persons have been
especially generous with their time and comments across the many topics
addressed here: Terry N. Clark, James S. Coleman, and Edward O. Lau-
mann. These three scholars graciously criticized long manuscripts that de­
veloped a perspective with which no one of them could feel comfortable,
since my methodology was a composite of their diversity. In analyzing their
often conflicting opinions about statements I had made, I came to a more
subtle understanding of the issues being addressed than otherwise would
have been possible.
I owe an unanticipated debt to the students in my seminars on mathe­
matical sociology and structural sociology. Their stimulating questions en­
couraged me to present my ideas from a variety of perspectives, and these
perspectives found their way into the text. The detailed reading to which
participants subjected the manuscript helped me to locate weak points in
the text. In particular, Rumi Price and William Glick provided detailed
commentary on the first draft. Scott Pimley, then an undergraduate student
brought to the Survey Research Center, helped in preparing the manuscript
by painstakingly checking quoted material against the original. Davida
Weinberg provided a careful second reading of the page proofs, minimizing
the number of typographical errors that survive in the final book.
A great many colleagues have affected the presentation, of course, but
their contributions have been specific to one or another substantive or
methodological issue addressed. An exception is Peter V. Marsden, at the
University of North Carolina, who gave me the benefit of his detailed
comments on the whole manuscript during my final revisions. I am grateful
to Harold L. Wilensky for his incisive comments on the introductory por­
tions of the draft manuscript, comments resulting in a complete rewriting
of the material. My intellectual debts to colleagues whose comments af­
fected my discussion of specialized substantive or methodological topics
are recorded in published papers on those topics. I draw on these papers
in the forthcoming discussion; they are cited where relevant. I appreciate
permission to use this material granted by the publishers of the Adminis­
trative Science Quarterly, the American Journal of Sociology, the American
Sociological Review, the Annual Review of Sociology, Social Forces, Social
Networks, Social Science Research, Sociological Inquiry, and Sociological
Methods & Research.
In addition, I am grateful to the following for permission to reproduce
extracts from the indicated copyright material:
Addison-Wesley Publishing, for the quote on page 24 from page 510 of
"Measurement of Social Choice and Interpersonal Attractiveness" by Gard­
ner Lindzey and Donn Byrne in volume 2 of The Handbook of Social
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiii
Psychology, Gardner Lindzey and Elliot Aronson, editors (Copyright ©
1968 by Addison-Wesley Publishing Company).
American Philosophical Society, for the quote on page 217 from page 11
of Induction and Intuition in Scientific Thought by Peter B. Medawar
(Copyright © 1969 by The American Philosophical Society).
Beacon Press, for the quotes on pages 343, 344 from pages 178, 265 of
The Elementary Structures of Kinship by Claude Lévi-Strauss, trans, by
James Harle Bell, John Richard von Stürmer and Rodney Needham, editor
(Copyright © 1969 by Beacon Press).
Bobbs-Merrill Company, for the quotes on pages 199, 201, 219 from pages
32, 118, 119 of Medical Innovation by James S. Coleman, Elihu Katz and
Herbert Menzel (Copyright © 1966 by The Bobbs-Merrill Company).
Cambridge University Press, for the quotes on pages 216, 217, 223 from
pages 79, 119 of Public Knowledge by John Ziman (Copyright © 1968 by
Cambridge University Press).
Doubleday and Company and Edward T. Hall, for the quote on page 7
from page 27 of The Silent Language by Edward T. Hall (Copyright © 1959
by Edward T. Hall).
E. P. Dutton and Company, for the quotes on pages 325, 326, 342 from
pages 83, 510, 511 of Argonauts of the Western Pacific by Bronislaw Mal-
inowski (U. S. Publication 1961 by E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc.).
Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, for the quotes on page 340 from pages 232,
248 of Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms by George C. Homans
(Copyright © 1961 by Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.).
Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration, Divi­
sion of Research, for the quotes on pages 140, 141, 142 from pages 13, 146,
200 of Directors: Myth and Reality by Myles L. Mace (Copyright © 1971
by the President and Fellows of Harvard College).
Harvard University Press, for the quote on page 46 from page 24 of
Toward a General Theory of Action, Talcott Parsons and Edward A. Shils
(Copyright © 1951 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College).
Houghton Mifflin Company, for the quote on page 312 from page 126 of
Economics and the Public Purpose by John Kenneth Galbraith (Copyright
© 1973 by John Kenneth Galbraith).
John Wiley and Sons, for the quote on page 340 from page 2 of Exchange
and Power in Social Life by Peter M. Blau (Copyright © 1964 by John
Wiley & Sons, Inc.).
Jossey-Bass, for the quote on page 349 from pages 93, 94 of 'The Al­
location of Time Among Individuals" by Christopher Winship in Socio­
logical Methodology 1978, Karl F. Schuessler, editor (Copyright © 1977
by Jossey-Bass, Inc., Publishers).
Macmillan Publishing for quotes on: (1) page 3 from pages 44, 45 of The
Structure of Social Action by Talcott Parsons (Copyright 1937 by The Free