ABSTRACT
Contemporary approaches to interpetive sociology have been shaped by Max Weber's work, but they have taken the opposite route from the one pursued by Parsons. Interpretive sociology consequently provides both a critique of, and alternative to, scientistic and macro-sociology. The common denominator of the various branches of interpretive sociology is provided by a defiant re-affirmation of humanist orientations - which is clearly apparent in its conceptualization. The symbolic-interactionist approach to sociology developed in an ongoing debate with scientistic and macro-conceptions of sociology. Role-theory as developed in structural-functionalist sociology conceives of actions as the resultant of a parallelogram of forces depicted as dispositions, which owe their origin to psychological processes and sanctioned expectations. The latter, in the form of role-expectations, serve to channel dispositionally oriented interaction into socially approved, normative behaviour. Methodological issues in sociology are too frequently resolved with reference to the standard repertoire of statistical and quantitative techniques in social science.
