ABSTRACT
Action is social in so far as, by virtue of the subjective meaning attached to it by the acting individual, it takes account of the behaviour of others and is thereby oriented in its course. The idea of sociology as a critical practice living within and between other cultural practices, but itself homeless and without a stable fund of established 'findings', was unacceptable. Since 1980 the broad assessment of Talcott Parsons' contribution to social theory has intensified. One strand of this was begun two years earlier with the publication of the whole of Schutz' 1940 critical study of The Structure of Social Action and the correspondence of Schutz and Parsons. Schutz was oriented throughout his life to Max Weber's problem, in a way which did not involve the rest of classical sociology, nor of cognate social sciences, in detailed criticism and review. The sociological theorist to whose work Schutz devoted much critical attention after his student days was Parsons himself.
