ABSTRACT
Rational choice theorists have frequently been polemical against specific sociological conceptions which rarely had any but certainly almost have completely lost their influence on empirical studies. Yet the strong aspiration to formulate general theories and universal laws of social action may be one of the reasons why many sociologists consider rational choice theory to be empirically unappealing. Many proponents of rational choke theory have blamed social stratification and mobility researchers to be "variable sociologists" studying the relationships between variables instead of actors. True, researchers of social structure theoretically focus on the constraints of individual actions rather than on individuals' intentions. Individuals' actions must therefore be studied from the perspective that they interact with the processes over time. Thus, the interdependencies of individuals' social actions and structural processes at different levels have to be reconstructed. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
