Foundations of Social Theory

Front Cover
Harvard University Press, 1990 - Social Science - 993 pages

Combining principles of individual rational choice with a sociological conception of collective action, James Coleman recasts social theory in a bold new way. The result is a landmark in sociological theory, capable of describing both stability and change in social systems.

This book provides for the first time a sound theoretical foundation for linking the behavior of individuals to organizational behavior and then to society as a whole. The power of the theory is especially apparent when Coleman analyzes corporate actors, such as large corporations and trade unions. He examines the creation of these institutions, collective decision making, and the processes through which authority is revoked in revolts and revolutions.

Coleman discusses the problems of holding institutions responsible for their actions as well as their incompatibility with the family. He also provides a simple mathematical analysis corresponding to and carrying further the verbal formulations of the theory. Finally, he generates research techniques that will permit quantitative testing of the theory.

From a simple, unified conceptual structure Coleman derives, through elegant chains of reasoning, an encompassing theory of society. It promises to be the most important contribution to social theory since the publication of Talcott Parsons' Structure of Social Action in 1936.

 

Contents

Explanation in Social Science
1
Actors and Resources Interest and Control
27
1
38
Rights to
45
Authority Relations
65
Structures of Action
117
From Authority Relations to Authority Systems
145
Systems of Trust and Their Dynamic Properties
175
Applied Social Research and the Theory of Action
626
What Should Applied Social Research Be Like?
645
The Linear System of Action
667
The Competitive Equilibrium and the Linear Sys of Action
681
Further Derivations and Use of the Model
687
Economic and Psychological Prope ties of the Utility Function
693
Empirical Applications
701
Extensions of the Theory
721

Collective Behavior
197
The Demand for Effective Norms
245
The Realization of Effective Norms
266
Social Capital
300
Corporate Action
323
The Problem of Social Choice
371
From Individual Choice to Social Choice
397
The Corporate Actor as a System of Action
421
Rights and Corporate Actors
451
Revoking Authority
466
The Self
503
Natural Persons and the New Corporate Actors
531
Responsibility of Corporate Actors
553
New Generations in the New Social Structure
579
The Relation of Sociology to Social Action in the
610
Trust in a Linear System of Action
747
Power the MicrotoMacro Transition and Interpersonal
769
Externalities and Norms in a Linear System of Action
785
Indivisible Events Corporate Actors and Collective
829
Dynamics of the Linear System of Action
874
Unstable and Transient Systems of Action
899
The Internal Structure of Actors
932
References
951
Name Index
973
397
974
145
979
503
983
175
986
1977
992
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Bibliographic information