Title: Contributions of Rational Choice Theory to Modern Sociology: An Overview
Abstract: Rational Choice (RC) theory argues that individual actions and their social outcomes can be explained by assuming goal-directed behaviour which is consistent with certain rationality criteria. This approach is based on methodological individualism. In economics and also in political science, RC is a proliferating research program. In sociology, there is an increasing number of scholars working in this tradition, in particular among American, European and Japanese sociologists. This chapter attempts to give a survey of the basic ideas and contributions made to sociology by RC theory. After a very brief description of its origins in Part 1 the core elements of RC theory will be discussed in Part 2. Having presented the necessary background, we will focus in Part 3 on the general contributions of RC to sociological theory. It will become clear that one of the main advantages of RC is its ability to provide a generalized framework for analysis of social phenomena. Part 4 will contain an overview of applications of RC in diverse fields of sociology.KeywordsHuman CapitalNash EquilibriumRational ChoiceRational Choice TheoryEconomic SociologyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Publication Year: 2004
Publication Date: 2004-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 1
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