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Assess the usefulness of interactionist approaches to the study of society- 33 marks

Interactionism is an action theory which is based on the micro level, they are bottom-up approaches which focus on the actions of individuals. They emphasise free will as they are more voluntaristic than structural theories. Whereas, structural theories such as functionalism are macro, top down and deterministic. They believe that individuals are puppets who are manipulated by society. There are four important action theories which all emphasise action but differ in how far they see a role for structural explanations of behaviour. Webers social action theory and symbolic interactionism assume that the social structure can influence how we act. Phenomenology and ethnomethodology reject the idea that there is a social structure, they believe that society is a social construct instead of it being a real thing.

Weber(one of the founding fathers of sociology) attempted to classify actions into four types. Instrumentally rational action is where the individual figures out the most efficient way of achieving the goal. An example of this is how businesses may calculate that the most efficient way of maximising profit would be to pay low wages. Value rational action is what the individual does in the belief that the action is desirable for their own sake. An example of this is a believer worshipping their god in order to get to heaven despite having no way of knowing whether it will gain him/her salvation. Traditional action is routine actions, something people do simply because they always have. Affectual action is the action which expresses emotion, such as weeping after someones death. Weber believes that this is important in religious and political movements with charismatic leaders who attract followers based on their emotional appeal. Weber uses the idea of verstehen to

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