actionalism
A term generally associated with the name of French sociologist Alain Touraine, and not to be confused with the ‘action frame of reference’ (see
ACTION THEORY
) proposed by Talcott Parsons. Beginning in the 1960s, Touraine developed a radical new theoretical framework, most fully described in
The Self-Production of Society
(1973). In his own words, Touraine aims to ‘replace a sociology of society with a sociology of actors’. His purpose has been to overcome what he sees as a false division in sociology between objective and subjective, or system and action approaches. Actionalism places the social actor at the centre of theoretical ...