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Nicos Mouzelis argues against a marked tendency in present- day sociology to conflate philosophy and sociological theory. In trying to demonstrate the relative autonomy and specific logic of sociological theorising, he draws from a variety of theoretical traditions in order to construct a set of interrelated concepts useful for bridging the gulf between macro and micro sociologies. Drawing examples from the sociology of development and from the theory of organisations, the author shows concretely how the conceptual framework proposed can help the researcher to avoid both the reification of macro institutional structures and their reduction to the intersubjective understandings of micro actors.

Inhalt
Acknowledgements - Introduction - Philosophy or Sociological Theory? - Restructuring Structuration Theory: Duality and Dualism in Sociological Theory - Social and System Integration: Back to Lockwood - Social Hierarchies and Some Sociological Theories of Micro/Macro Integration - Hierarchies, Social and System Integration, Duality and Dualism - Reification: Ignoring the Balance between Social and System Integration - Reductionism: Neglecting Hierarchical Levels - Conclusion - Appendix I: Social and System Integration: Habermas' View - Appendix II: The Interaction Order and the Micro-Macro Distinction - Notes - Index