ABSTRACT
The model of rationality developed by Boudon represents the hard core of his methodology, since it aims at providing the basis for social explanation according to the principles of methodological individualism. This model attempts to integrate and go beyond two distinct approaches: one represented by a model of an actor conceived as Homo sociologicus and according to which social action is explained through the internalisation of norms and values; the other by Homo economicus, which emphasises the utilitarian aspects of action. This combination aims at social explanation through an action paradigm according to which action is neither ‘a mechanical response to a given situation’ nor defined by ‘some external source of meaning such as a theory of history’ (Outhwaite, 1996: 03).
