Weber’s theory of social action is related to his methodological approach. Weber first developed the theory of social action in Economy and Society, which he wrote between 1911 and 1920. The theory of social action proposed by Weber eventually embraced the question of ‘meaningful’ social action and attempted to incorporate the relevance of values in a theory of human action. In fact, Weber’s theory of action is the product of the Methodenstreit.
In the background of this theory, Weber made two fundamental points: first, that sociology must concern itself with the interpretation of social action; and second, that it must devise a social theory of values. Weber’s theory of social action may be defined as that body of social theory devised by him in order to make valid judgements about the “inner states” of actors in their Actions. By “inner states” Weber was referring to the capacity of the actor to choose between the means and ends of action and to exercise ‘rational choice Weber’s theory of social action involves four central concepts:
Meaning of Social Action
The concept of social action is the centre of all social ideas of Max Weber. According to him all social concepts hinge upon the central conception of social action. Defining social action Max Weber observes that the social action is that action of an individual which is some how influenced, by the action and behaviour of other persons and by which it is modified or its direction determined. Thus, it is clear that by the term social action we mean the actions of individuals which are some how influenced, guided or determined by the action of other individuals. Pointing out the importance of the sociologist’s ability to grasp the subjective quality of human, Weber wrote, “A correct causal interpretation of concrete course of action, is arrived at when the overt action and the motives have both been correctly apprehended and at the same time their relation has become meaningfully comprehensible.”
Characteristics of social action
Max Weber has made a very subtle analysis of the concept of social action. The significant characteristics of social action are the following:
- Influenced by an action of Past, Present or Future.
It should be by now quite obvious to the reader that a social action is a result or a modification of some action of other person or persons. But it needs to be made clear here that the modifying action need not necessarily be contemporaneous with the modified action, that is, it may not be occurring at the same time or just before in order to influence the action of an individual.
Indeed such an action may be a past occurrence or even an expected action in the future. This fact can be explained by certain illustrations. For example, if A lends B rupees one hundred B may return these at some future date. Thus here the social action of B is due to a past action of A in another example, we can visualize a man giving alms to the poor man and the poor man wishing him well. This will be a case of a present action. As regards the future action we may think of a man decorating his premises in order to impress his friends and relatives whom he expects to visit him in near future. Thus, we may conclude this point by pointing out that a social action is necessarily a result or a modification of some action of some other individual; but the causal or modifying action may be an occurrence of past, present or future.
- Presupposes the existence of other individual and some action by him.
As we have remarked earlier, a social action is a result of some action by some individual whose action, in turn, results in an action by some other individual. This means that there can be no social action in isolation, that is, an individual living in complete wilderness removed from all inter-personal contacts cannot do a social action. The contemplation and meditation of a recluse are not to be included in the category of social action. Therefore, social action is possible if and only if there is another human being whose action or behaviour is prompting to the giving individual to act in a particular manner.
- Necessity of Subjective Meaning.
In a social act it is necessary that it should have subjective meaning to the doer of a particular social action. If two persons collide accidentally and without any motive whatsoever the collision will not be a social action. On the other hand if a notorious smuggler causes a collision of a truck with a police jeep resulting in injuries or death, then such a collision would be a case of social action. Even if the accident- al collision is followed by some quarrel or tendering of apologies to each other, then, too the action will be social action. A blind imitation without any understanding of the nature of act being imitated is no social action. Only if there is some understanding of what is being done, social action is the result. Thus the actions of even advanced and sophisticated computers will not be included in the category of social actions. Explaining what Weber means by social action Raymond Aaron Wrote,:
“What is social action? action, Weber tells us, is a form of human conduct-the German world is Verstehen -consisting of an internal or external attitude which is expressed by acting or refraining from action. It is action when man assigns a certain meaning to his conduct, and the action is social when, by the meaning he gives it, it relates to the behaviour of other persons and is oriented towards their behaviour.” Again, “Social action takes the form of social interaction, when, given several actors, the meaning of the action of each is related to the attitude of others. The actions are reciprocally oriented towards one another.”
Sociology and Social Action
Explaining Weber’s concept of sociology Raymond Aaron has written, “What is sociology? According to Max Weber, sociology is the science of social action. It seeks to comprehend social action by interpreting it; at the same time it seeks to explain the course of this action in social terms. There are three key terms, then:
deuten – to interpret, to grasp the significance subjective meaning;
verstehen -to comprehend, to organize the subjective meaning of human actions into concepts; and
exklaren-to explain causally, or reveal the constants of human behaviour.”.
The primary task of sociology, according to Max Weber, is the study of social action. Sociology studies the different aspects of social action. It studies human behaviour. However, it is not a mere description of behaviour but is the study of the meaning, purpose and value of the human behaviour. By the analysis of social action, it tries to discover the causes underlying social action. Besides, sociology also tries to comprehend the consequences of social action. Thus, we may conclude that there is an intimate connection between sociology and social action.
Classification of Social Action
Weber classifies-social action according to the mode of orientation. Typically, any scientist should start with observable data and then proceed on to higher and higher levels of abstractions. So too, sociology, according to Weber, in tune with the other sciences, studies basically social action. This is certainly an observable phenomenon and forms rightly the crux of Weber’s analysis. It is an interpretative understanding of the subjective meaning of social action. For social action there must be a minimum of mutual orientation. Typically, any scientist should start with observable data and then proceed on to higher and higher levels of abstractions. So too, sociology, according to Weber, in tune with the other sciences, studies basically social action. This is certainly an observable phenomenon and forms rightly the crux of Weber’s analysis. It is an interpretative understanding of the subjective meaning of social action.
For social action there must be a minimum of mutual orientation. That is to say, taking the simplest kind of interaction the alter ego situation, the alters’ behaviour must be influenced by and oriented to the ego and vice-versa. Similar action does not become social action because mutual orientation is absent, for instance; the fact that all people who are out, open up their umbrellas when it rains, does not imply social action because each one is reacting individually to an external stimulus-incidentally common to all. On the mode of orientation, Weber classified social action into four types as follows
- Zweck rational action.
- Wert rational action,
- Effectual Action.
- Tradition action.
- Zweckrational Action.
This is purely rational action. It means 1. that the actor who is fully conscious of his ends, selects the appropriate means towards the attainment of his goal. Economic behaviour is purely Final in the sense that the producer chooses the most cheap efficient canny in the production of goods. Every entrepreneur aims at optimum level of production using the best means efficient to achieving this end. Hence he chooses between the innumerable alternatives open to him to achieve this goal and exercises rationality principle. His decision is purely rational in economic terms. This is referred to as “Zweck rational action by Weber.
- Wert rational Action.
The second kind is Wert rational action in which the actor is governed by values. Here logicality refers more to the means than to the end, because the cads may or may not by truce. Religious behaviour, in which people engage in a number of activities for the achievements of certain things, is typically an example of this kind of social action. Whether a devotee does achieve his cads through religious other related activity denotes that he is influenced by religion as a value.
- Effectual Action.
The 3rd kind of action is ‘affectual in which sentiment, emotions and certain other states of mind play an important part. The affectual relationship of members within a family is an example. The mother does not love her children, because she finds it gainful to do so, but purely because she can’t help loving her children. Here the role of sentiments and affection is the base of actions, the kinship bonds of the members of the group, cannot be ignored under any conditions of study.
- Traditional action :
It is the fourth kind of social action. This action is performed merely because it has always been done. All customs, folkways and mores belong to this category. A particular way of dressing, for instance, is followed because that is what people before have been following, observance of several rites and performance of ceremonies are matters more of custom than rationality.
Weber broadly classified the above four kinds into rational and irrational typologies. This classification, however, is not mutually exclusive because a particular action may fall into both the above categories. Marginal censes are not uncommon in sociological knowledge. However, the typologies of social action propounded by Weber have been the banes of not “wcial action” as such but that of the ‘ideal type’ analysis. Ideal types, referred to as standards for comparative methods are based on the Zweckrational classification of social action and these formulations in modern sociological theory are indeed immense.