Structure After 50 Years: The Anatomy of a Charter

Abstract

In the half century since its publication, The Structure of Social Action has emerged as one of the classics of the sociological tradition. At the present time, however, there is scarcely any agreement about the status of the book's argument among all those who still appeal to the volume. After 50 years, the vast scholarship generated by Structure is in disarray, with separate literatures existing for different aspects of the book and controversies present in all these literatures. This paper examines each major aspect of Structure: its (1) sociohistorical context, (2) writing style, (3) methodological argument, (4) account of the history of social theory, (5) analysis of action, (6) view of the social world, (7) perspective on the actor, (8) treatment of the problem of order, and (9) approach to voluntarism. The paper argues that, when Structure is embedded in the sociointellectual context where it was produced, and is interpreted as a "charter" intended to defend the science of sociology against forces such as behaviorism and neoclassicism, the separate features of its argument come together to allow the resolution of many of the controversies that surround the book and to facilitate the integration of much of the previous scholarship. This interpretation locates the achievement and the critical limitations of Structure in Talcott Persons's tendency to universalize the particular ideas that served to advanced the immediate aims of his charter for sociology.

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