Social Action Theories A2 Sociology Social Action Theories

Pair work Working in pairs: Identify the signs on the sheet What do these signs stand for? What might the consequences be of misinterpreting these signs?

Recapping key concepts Socialisation Culture and identity Power and Stratification Social differentiation

What do social action theorists do? Focus on individual and small group behaviour Are interested in the meaning people make of social contexts How people define their identities and are defined through other people’s perceptions of their behaviour How people define situations that they are in

G.H Mead/social order Influenced by pragmatism and behavioural psychology Meaningful acts Gestures Constant interplay Intelligence – fitting in with others expectations, reading symbols Reflexive behaviour

GH Mead and ‘the self’ Every individual has a ‘self’ The self is a synthesis of internal processes and the reaction of others The ‘I’ – how you see yourself The ‘Me’ your concept based on other’s interpretations

Erving Goffman Very important social theorist Interested in the meaning of social action No objective reality, merely how we interpret social action through context Social situations are open

Erving Goffman Dramaturgy – The social world as a play Context Self presentation/Impression management (Masks) Front region Back region NVC - props Idealisation Performance teams

Pair work Complete the table you have been given How might self presentation work in these contexts? (A) Nightclub (B) Working in a supermarket (C) At a funeral

Individual work Outline five evaluative points of symbolic interactionist theory p246

Another branch/ Phenomenology Alfred Schutz (1967) No objective world Intrapersonal ‘typifications’ make social order possible (‘common-sense’) Meaning of ‘action’ is contextual Recipe knowledge

Phenomenology/The natural attitude Social order based on expectation of cooperation ‘Evidence’ of external world comes in the form of others meeting expectations

Berger and Luckmann (1971) Outline Berger and Luckmann’s three criticisms of Shutz’s phenomenology Page 248

Another branch of social action theory Ethn omet hod ologyis asoci olog icaldis cipline wh ichstu diesways inw ich peo plemak esen se o fthe wor lddisp layt hisun derst an dingtoo the rs andp roduce themu tuallys har edso cia lor derinw hichth eylive thete rmw asin iti ally coined byh ar old gar fink elin 1954 WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

Ethnomethodology Garfinkel (1967) People’s (ethno) methodology (methods) People create society from the ‘bottom up’ Social reality is an active construction Ethnomethodolgists interested in how we make sense of the world Unlike S.I are interested in where meaning comes from not the meaning itself

Ethnomethodology/Indexicality Indexical signs – signs that refer to something else Indexicality – not being able to understand the meaning No meaning can be taken for granted We use ‘common-sense meanings’ and language to give ‘meaning’ to a situation Breaching experiments Social order as continually remade

Individual activity Outline 5 evaluative points of ethnomethodology

Individual activity/Faking it Watch the first 15 minutes of faking it Fill out the sheet you have been given to illustrate your understanding of social action theories. http://www.channel4.com/programmes/faking-it/4od#2922642

Complete the questions on social action theory

Integrated Approaches “We are both the bearers and producers of social structure”. - Giddens (1985)

Weber (1904) Influenced by both idealism and materialism Example The Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism

Giddens (1986) Structuration Invented ‘third way’ High influential in New Labour Behaviour is both constrained and enabled by social structure The structure provides a framework of norms, values, laws etc – social order Structure undergoes change when it outlives usefulness

Examples of changes in Laws AO2 Gay marriage (2014) Divorce Act 1969 Equal Pay Act (1970) Race Relations Act (1976) Disablity discrimination Act (2000) Don’t forget countless other shifts in ‘normative behaviour’

Individual activity Outline three evaluative points of ‘structuration theory’