Can theories of action and systems be associated? Assumptions about the systems theory of Parsons and Luhmann and the action theory of Weber

• Autor(a) principal: Schwinn, Thomas
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Bolda, Bruna dos Santos, Schaefer , Márcia Inês
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Em Tese (Florianópolis)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/emtese/article/view/78997
• topic: Atividade física; Estilo de vida; Saude; Motor activity; Students; Cross-sectional study

In sociological theory there is no consensus on how to integrate the action theory (like Max Weber's classic approach) and the systems theory (such as Talcott Parsons and Niklas Luhmann approaches). By recognizing that there is a distinction between both levels (the “top” level of the system and the “bottom” level of the action), some theories ambiguously attempt to mingle them. This leads to inconsistent models. On the one hand, there is Parsons' theory that integrates the system‘s functionalism with the theory of action. Parsons turns Max Weber's conceptual framework upside down to subsume the action in the system. Alternatively, there is Luhmann's theory that inserts actors within autopoietic systems. The agents start to play an environmental relation with social systems in a way that their actions are not the elements that constitute the systems, but, rather, communicative events do so. Bearing in mind that action theory and systems theory are two sociologies with different analytical assumptions, they cannot be merged into a single model.