meaningful sociology

any form of sociology premised on the assumption:

that social actors above all inhabit a universe of social ‘meanings’;
that SOCIAL ACTION is meaningful action; and
that social occurrences must be explained primarily as the outcome of actors’ ‘meanings’, i.e. the beliefs, motives, purposes, reasons, etc. that lead to ACTIONS. The term is commonly applied to WEBER'S ACTION THEORY, but can equally apply to related approaches such as SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM. See also MEANINGFUL UNDERSTANDING AND EXPLANATION, INTERPRETATIVE SOCIOLOGY, VERSTEHEN.

Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2000

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References in periodicals archive

Carroll's fundamental point, in casting his argument, is that a meaningful sociology ought to be conceived "not as a self-contained discipline but as a nexus, a field whose permeability, dense connectivity to other fields and "critical interdisciplinarity" are prime assets ...

While both models are, essentially, attempts to define a meaningful sociology, the pictures of the discipline they paint are of rather different tones, shades, and textures.

Who Now Needs Sociology?: Transdisciplinarity Vs. Tradition

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