In Karen A. Cerulo (ed.) Culture in Mind: Toward a Sociology of Culture and Cognition. New York: Routledge. 2002: 28-54. SIGNALS AND INTERPRETIVE WORK: THE ROLE OF CULTURE IN A THEORY OF PRACTICAL ACTION
نویسنده
چکیده
Powell consider the possibility of a micro-sociological supplement to the macro-sociological focus on structure, order, and persistence that has so far dominated research and theory in the new institutionalism. Searching for some answers, they analyze transformations in sociological theory since Parson's theory of action that offer alternatives to the Parsonian emphasis on norms and roles. They suggest that elements necessary to a "theory of practical action" compatible with the new institutionalism can be found in the more recent cultural turn in contemporary social theory that 1) "emphasizes the cognitive dimension of action to a far greater extent than did Parsons," and 2) "departs from Parsons' preoccupation with the rational, calculative aspect of cognition to focus on pre-conscious processes and schema as they enter into routine, taken-for-granted behavior (practical activity) (1991: 22)." DiMaggio and Powell conclude that ethnomethodology (Garfinkel 1967) and phenomenology (Berger and Luckmann 1966), in combination, offer an alternative, but one that leaves important questions-how do the micro-processes of these theories produce social order, what is the role of interests and intentionality-unanswered. i They then consider three theorists whose work deals with the problem of social order in a way that gives some insight into micro-level sources of macro-level stability: Giddens on structuration; Goffman on ritual order; Collins on interaction ritual chains. Noting that, in common, these theorists make gains by maintaining the importance of cognition and revealing more of the noncalculative, routine elements of practical reason, DiMaggio and Powell still find gaps. Chief among them is the failure to complete the macro-micro link: What, specifically, is the analytic equivalent of Parson's notion of the role system as a connector between
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