TY - JOUR
T1 - Social causality
AU - Schatzki, Theodore R.
PY - 1988
Y1 - 1988
N2 - This paper combines a phenomenological account of the types of causal transaction found in social reality with a critique of two theories, one structuralist and one Marxist, that contravene it. Part I argues that there are three types of causal transaction in social life in addition to physical causal transactions: people bringing about states of affairs by acting, states of affairs bringing about actions by inducing responses, and entities and states of affairs bringing about what makes sense to people to do by making certain factors determine this. It is also contended that social formations and structures cause actions and other social formations/structures only by way of participating in these types of transaction. The conditions under which this occurs are discussed. Part II criticizes Peter Blau’s account of structural effects and Jean-Paul Sartre’s version of a materialist theory of history, two theories that either advocate or require causal transactions between social structures/formations which do not reduce to transactions of the types described in The paper concludes by suggesting that social entities that make actions possible do not thereby cause them.
AB - This paper combines a phenomenological account of the types of causal transaction found in social reality with a critique of two theories, one structuralist and one Marxist, that contravene it. Part I argues that there are three types of causal transaction in social life in addition to physical causal transactions: people bringing about states of affairs by acting, states of affairs bringing about actions by inducing responses, and entities and states of affairs bringing about what makes sense to people to do by making certain factors determine this. It is also contended that social formations and structures cause actions and other social formations/structures only by way of participating in these types of transaction. The conditions under which this occurs are discussed. Part II criticizes Peter Blau’s account of structural effects and Jean-Paul Sartre’s version of a materialist theory of history, two theories that either advocate or require causal transactions between social structures/formations which do not reduce to transactions of the types described in The paper concludes by suggesting that social entities that make actions possible do not thereby cause them.
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U2 - 10.1080/00201748808602145
DO - 10.1080/00201748808602145
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84928509163
SN - 0020-174X
VL - 31
SP - 151
EP - 170
JO - Inquiry (United Kingdom)
JF - Inquiry (United Kingdom)
IS - 2
ER -