The Theory of action: Talcott Parsons and after

Title:

The Theory of action: Talcott Parsons and after

Creator:

Balon, Jan

Identifier:

https://cdk.lib.cas.cz/client/handle/uuid:cddbfd2c-700b-4a8c-b648-68ae2e39b4e8
uuid:cddbfd2c-700b-4a8c-b648-68ae2e39b4e8

Subject:

filozofie, philosophy, action, Parsons, contradiction, system, general theory, conceptual scheme, voluntarism, 5, and 101

Type:

model:article and TEXT

Description:

This article focuses on the problems and contradictions of sociological theories of action. It investigates critically the development of the theory of action after the Parsonian synthesis, drawing attention to the limitations of articulating the concept of action systematically within a presuppositional framework of analytical theory. Having exposed Parsons general theory of action and some interpretations and criticisms, the paper addresses the so-called “return of grand theory”, spearheaded in the early 1980s by authors such as Alexander, Habermas, Giddens and Luhmann. The article analyses the conceptual innovations introduced by their theories according to Parsons own definition of theoretical work, which - as he said - consists in reconstruction and transformation of categories in the moments of their failure. While it is argued that sociological theory cannot do away with general concepts, it is also argued that these need not have the form of a synthetic theory of action of the kind outlined by Parsons and the Post-Parsonians. and Jan Balon.

Language:

Czech

Rights:

http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/
policy:public

Coverage:

41-70

Source:

Teorie vědy | 2009 Volume:31 | Number:2

Harvested from:

CDK

Metadata only:

false