Coleman J. Foundations of Social Theory

Belknap Press, 1990. — 1012 p. — ISBN 0674312260, 9780674312265.Combining principles of individual rational choice with a sociological conception of collective action, James Coleman recasts social theory in a bold new way. The result is a landmark in sociological theory, capable of describing both stability and change in social systems. This book provides for the first time a sound theoretical foundation for linking the behavior of individuals to organizational behavior and then to society as a whole. The power of the theory is especially apparent when Coleman analyzes corporate actors, such as large corporations and trade unions. He examines the creation of these institutions, collective decision making, and the processes through which authority is revoked in revolts and revolutions. Coleman discusses the problems of holding institutions responsible for their actions as well as their incompatibility with the family. He also provides a simple mathematical analysis corresponding to and carrying further the verbal formulations of the theory. Finally, he generates research techniques that will permit quantitative testing of the theory. From a simple, unified conceptual structure Coleman derives, through elegant chains of reasoning, an encompassing theory of society. It promises to be the most important contribution to social theory since the publication of Talcott Parsons' Structure of Social Action in 1936.
Elementary Actions and Relations.
Actors and Resources, Interest and Control.
Rights to Act.
Authority Relations.
Relations of Trust.
Structures of Action.
Systems of Social Exchange.
From Authority Relations to Authority Systems.
Systems of Trust and Their Dynamic Properties.
Collective Behavior.
The Demand for Effective Norms.
The Realization of Effective Norms.
Social Capital.
Corporate Action.
Constitutions and the Construction of Corporate Actors.
The Problem of Social Choice.
From Individual Choice to Social Choice.
The Corporate Actor as a System of Action.
Rights and Corporate Actors.
Revoking Authority.
The Self.
Modern Society.
Natural Persons and the New Corporate Actors.
Responsibility of Corporate Actors.
New Generations in the New Social Structure.
The Relation of Sociology to Social Action in the New Social Structure.
The New Social Structure and the New Social Science.
The Mathematics of Social Action.
The Linear System of Action.
Empirical Applications.
Extensions of the Theory.
Trust in a Linear System of Action.
Power, the Micro-to-Macro Transition, and Interpersonal Comparison of Utility.
Externalities and Norms in a Linear System of Action.
Indivisible Events. Corporate Actors, and Collective Decisions.
Dynamics of the Linear System of Action.
Unstable and Transient Systems of Action.
The Internal Structure of Actors.