ABSTRACT
Feedback between innovation in research methods and theoretical concepts has driven the advance of micro-sociology. Although the macro-sociological version of Durkheimian theory was functionalist equilibrium, Durkheim down-sized to the interacting group becomes dynamic. It makes a great addition to the study of historical and even revolutionary changes when religions, regimes and manners are delegitimated and replaced by more engrossing ones. Some applications of micro-sociological methods and theory to mainstream sociological topics follow: especially our concern with stratification, inequality, power, conflict and resistance. Micro-sociology has policy implications. Police shootings frequently arise from misperception and over-reaction to the situation. A long-standing criticism of ethnomethodology and other micro-sociology has been that they tell us nothing except tedious details that are really determined at the macro level. The sociology of violence shows this is not true; there is crucial causality at the micro level.
