ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses Peter Blau’s interpretation of Georg Simmel; and illustrates the consequences for Blau’s theory of social structure of his selective use of Simmel’s sociological legacy. It offers some suggestions on how to connect Blau’s “deductive theory of social structure” with a broader interpretation of Simmel’s writings. According to Blau, the fundamental goal of constructing a theory of social structure involves individuating the structural parameters which delineate the distribution of people among social positions, and which therefore determine the constraints and opportunities for social relations. Blau’s “deductive theory of social structure” sets out to explain patterns of social relations in structural terms rather than investigate individual behavior in psychological or cultural terms. Social interactions are maintained in spite of the lack of current relations: society, particularly social structure, exist only as “memory traces” in the individual’s mind. Solitariness prevents any reciprocal exchange of benefits, hence, a social exchange in Blau’s sense.
