INTERESTS IN THE
SOCIOLOGICAL TRADITION
Three questions help distinguish different positions
on interest-oriented action: (a) How important
are interests for understanding social
action? (b) How are interests conceptualized?
(c) How is micro-level interested action related
to meso- and macro-social processes?
First, most sociologists adopt contradictory
assumptions about the importance of interestoriented
action for sociological explanation.
Simple and potentially tautological utilitarian
postulates about the universality and explanatory
power of egoistic, rational, self-interested
action are rare, but some theorists do see interests
as the driving force of social action and
as fundamental to larger social forms (Hechter
1987, Coleman 1990, Hechter & Kanazawa
1997). Many more sociologists assume that
powerful groups, at least, act this way most of
the time. Most commonly, sociologists see interests
as a major determinant of social action,
but also situate them in a broader class of actionorientations (Weber 1978) and emphasize
their varied social structuration in fields (e.g.,
Bourdieu 1998, Fligstein & McAdam 2011).
Others downplay the explanatory significance
of interests by emphasizing instead the shaping
of action by higher-order ideas and values, or
at least by emphasizing that action is subject
to significant normative regulation (e.g.,
Campbell 1998, Meyer & Jepperson 2000,
Smith 2003, Alexander 2006, Jepperson &
Meyer 2011).
Second, when interest-oriented action is explicitly
highlighted, scholars differ in the particularities
and range of interests they consider—
material/ideal, psychological/social, singular/
multiple, short-term/long-term, individual/
collective, etc. These variations give different
contributions different emphases. For instance,
considering collective over individual interests
may invite puzzles about how interests are
aggregated (e.g., Olson 1965) or about prior
collective identity formation (e.g., Polletta
& Jasper 2001). Similarly, theorists vary in
treating interests as short-term and situational
or long-term (Emerson 1976, p. 353; Barbalet
2012).
Scholars’ varying assumptions about the importance
of interest-oriented action and about
how to understand substantive interests influence
their positions on the third question:How
are micro-level interest-oriented actions and
meso- and macro-level social processes related?
Are interests defined subjectively, before aggregating
them to explain larger social formations,
or are they derived more objectively from social
context or social position?
These three questions help specify and differentiate
theoretical and empirical approaches
to understanding interest-oriented action. For
example, Swedberg (2003, pp. 290–97; 2005)
argues that interests are important for explaining
action, that they should be understood in
a substantively rich and multifaceted way, and
that they should ultimately aggregate to explain
meso- and macro-level social processes. He
emphasizes qualities of awareness, motivation,
and deliberation in action orientations, aswell as “resistance—and objectivity of the
signpost as a social fact,” and the potential
indeterminacy and unintended consequences
of action (Swedberg 2005, p. 97).
Swedberg’s analysis develops Weber’s view
that interests are subjective and substantively
varied orientations (e.g., interests in salvation,
honor, security, etc.), which can explain specific
acts, rendering observable the meanings
that guide them. Interested orientations are distinguished
from traditional and affective orientations,
but they can encompass value-rational
goals—“the value for its own sake of some
ethical, aesthetic, religious, or other form of
behavior”—if such ends are pursued with deliberation
(Weber 1978, p. 25). However, if one
moves the analysis closer to utilitarian understandings,
then instrumentally rational action
in which “the end, the means, and the secondary
results are all rationally taken into account
and weighed” becomes more predominant in
modernity, colonizing action in even putatively
value-rational, affective, and traditional orientations
(Weber 1978, p. 26; see also ch. 1).
Like Weber, pragmatist theorists understood
interests in terms of a broader theory of
action [e.g., James (1891) criticized utilitarianism
as “insufficiently empirical” because of
the individuality and subjectivity of value]. But
they downplayed the theoretical significance of
interests more than Weber. For James, interest
(or desire) is the basis of valuation, which
orients individual action ( James 1891, p. 335;
Perry 1909, p. 11), so his view tends to collapse
Weber’s differentiated typology of orientations
in the moment of the individual act. Similarly,
for Dewey (1932 [1998], p. 344), “any concrete
case of the union of the self in action with
an object and an end is called an interest,”
so interests explain action only in the trivial
sense that actions have objects. If interests
were detached from the specific actions they
oriented, they would still remain multifarious,
individual, and highly context dependent.
Interests are also shaped by surrounding
situation: “[D]esire and interest are not given
ready-made at the outset, . . . for desire alwaysemerges within a prior system of activities or
interrelated energies. It arises within a field”
(Dewey 1939, p. 53). Neither are interests
independent of each other; rather, each is “a
function of the set to which it belongs” in
“definite existential contexts” (Dewey 1939,
p. 18). But this contextual shaping of interests
in action does not imply they may be explained
by broad social contexts, nor that they are
shaped in any systematic way. Thus, in Joas’s
(1996, p. 133) later development, pragmatism
becomes a theory of “situated creativity,”
rather than an account of interests in action.
Other classical sociological challenges to
simple utilitarianism broadened the context
within which interest-oriented action was
understood to be shaped. Marx, like Weber,
saw interest-oriented action as an essential
explanatory principle, but ultimately reducible
largely to material interests objectively determined
relative to a social position. Objective,
collective, and contradictory, interests express
systemic social features and represent tendencies
for behavior and conflict inherent in
social positions, so the direction of influence
between macro- or meso-social processes and
micro-level interested action is the opposite
of that postulated by Weber. A corollary of
this argument distinguishes people’s subjective
aspirations from their real interests: what their
action means when viewed inside the “objective
situation” of social totality (Marx & Engels
1978, pp. 160–61; see also Lukacs 1971, p. 51).
In this sense, action may be oriented to ends
that undermine the actors’ objective interests
as derived from social position; however,
this argument relies on the epistemologically
problematic notion that actors are therefore
characterized by “false consciousness” (Marx
1967, pp. 166–67; see also Clegg 1989, pp.
111–15).
Interested action is less important theoretically
for Durkheim than for Marx or Weber,
but neither is it simply a characterization of
the relationship between action and object, as
it was for the pragmatists. For Durkheim, substantive
interests are certainly varied, as forWeber
and the pragmatists, and they become moreso with increasing social differentiation. However,
even interest-oriented action results from
the demands of solidarity as a “moral fact,” and
macro-social context determines the importance
of interest-oriented action. So, in complex
societies with organic solidarity, “collective
consciousness is increasingly reduced to the
cult of the individual” so that interest-oriented
action becomes more prevalent and individualism
more central to moral discourse (Durkheim
1984, p. 338). But only in dysfunctional transitional
social forms, and in the minds of utilitarians,
is micro-level interest-oriented action
simply egoistic determination and assessment
of optimal ends and means. Durkheim argues
this point forcibly regarding the noncontractual
basis of contract, which challenges as unrealistic
and unsustainable Spencer’s reduction
of modern social relations to the “vast system
of special contracts that link individuals . . . [in]
the spontaneous agreement between individual
interests” (Durkheim 1984, pp. 151–52;
1953).
Durkheim’s argument regarding complex
societies extends to Weber’s methodological
individualism. Weber (1978, p. 30) argued that,
for actors pursuing their own interests,
the more strictly rational (zweckrational ) their
action is, the more they will tend to react similarly
to the same situation. In this way there
arise similarities, uniformities, and continuities
in their attitudes and actions which are
often far more stable than they would be if
action were oriented to a system of norms.
But Durkheim (1984, p. 152) saw not predictability
but disorganization:
For where interest alone reigns, as nothing
arises to check the egoisms confronting one
another, each self finds itself in relation to the
other on a war footing. . . . Self-interest is, in
fact, the least constant thing in the world. Today
it is useful for me to unite with you; tomorrow
the same reason will make me your
enemy. Thus such a cause can give rise only to
transitory links and associations of a fleeting
kind. For Weber, the pursuit of self-interest without
normative regulation generates the stability of
the “iron cage”; for Durkheim, the normless
pursuit of self-interest threatened stable social
relations.
These fundamentally different positions
highlight a deep and persistent theoretical fissure.
Is interest-oriented action a fundamental
category of sociological analysis, essential for
understanding larger-scale social processes, or
is it a contingent consequence of those largerscale
social processes? At stake, as the quotations
suggest, are assessmen
INTERESTS IN THESOCIOLOGICAL TRADITIONThree questions help distinguish different positionson interest-oriented action: (a) How importantare interests for understanding socialaction? (b) How are interests conceptualized?(c) How is micro-level interested action relatedto meso- and macro-social processes?First, most sociologists adopt contradictoryassumptions about the importance of interestorientedaction for sociological explanation.Simple and potentially tautological utilitarianpostulates about the universality and explanatorypower of egoistic, rational, self-interestedaction are rare, but some theorists do see interestsas the driving force of social action andas fundamental to larger social forms (Hechter1987, Coleman 1990, Hechter & Kanazawa1997). Many more sociologists assume thatpowerful groups, at least, act this way most ofthe time. Most commonly, sociologists see interestsas a major determinant of social action,but also situate them in a broader class of actionorientations (Weber 1978) and emphasizetheir varied social structuration in fields (e.g.,Bourdieu 1998, Fligstein & McAdam 2011).Others downplay the explanatory significanceof interests by emphasizing instead the shapingof action by higher-order ideas and values, orat least by emphasizing that action is subjectto significant normative regulation (e.g.,Campbell 1998, Meyer & Jepperson 2000,Smith 2003, Alexander 2006, Jepperson &Meyer 2011).Second, when interest-oriented action is explicitlyhighlighted, scholars differ in the particularitiesand range of interests they consider—material/ideal, psychological/social, singular/multiple, short-term/long-term, individual/collective, etc. These variations give differentcontributions different emphases. For instance,considering collective over individual interestsmay invite puzzles about how interests areaggregated (e.g., Olson 1965) or about priorcollective identity formation (e.g., Polletta& Jasper 2001). Similarly, theorists vary intreating interests as short-term and situationalor long-term (Emerson 1976, p. 353; Barbalet2012).Scholars’ varying assumptions about the importanceof interest-oriented action and abouthow to understand substantive interests influencetheir positions on the third question:Howare micro-level interest-oriented actions andmeso- and macro-level social processes related?Are interests defined subjectively, before aggregatingthem to explain larger social formations,or are they derived more objectively from socialcontext or social position?These three questions help specify and differentiatetheoretical and empirical approachesto understanding interest-oriented action. Forexample, Swedberg (2003, pp. 290–97; 2005)argues that interests are important for explainingaction, that they should be understood ina substantively rich and multifaceted way, andthat they should ultimately aggregate to explainmeso- and macro-level social processes. Heemphasizes qualities of awareness, motivation,and deliberation in action orientations, aswell as “resistance—and objectivity of thesignpost as a social fact,” and the potentialindeterminacy and unintended consequencesof action (Swedberg 2005, p. 97).Swedberg’s analysis develops Weber’s viewthat interests are subjective and substantivelyvaried orientations (e.g., interests in salvation,honor, security, etc.), which can explain specificacts, rendering observable the meaningsthat guide them. Interested orientations are distinguishedfrom traditional and affective orientations,but they can encompass value-rationalgoals—“the value for its own sake of someethical, aesthetic, religious, or other form ofbehavior”—if such ends are pursued with deliberation(Weber 1978, p. 25). However, if onemoves the analysis closer to utilitarian understandings,then instrumentally rational actionin which “the end, the means, and the secondaryresults are all rationally taken into accountand weighed” becomes more predominant inmodernity, colonizing action in even putativelyvalue-rational, affective, and traditional orientations(Weber 1978, p. 26; see also ch. 1).Like Weber, pragmatist theorists understoodinterests in terms of a broader theory ofaction [e.g., James (1891) criticized utilitarianismas “insufficiently empirical” because ofthe individuality and subjectivity of value]. Butthey downplayed the theoretical significance ofinterests more than Weber. For James, interest(or desire) is the basis of valuation, whichorients individual action ( James 1891, p. 335;Perry 1909, p. 11), so his view tends to collapseWeber’s differentiated typology of orientationsin the moment of the individual act. Similarly,for Dewey (1932 [1998], p. 344), “any concretecase of the union of the self in action withan object and an end is called an interest,”so interests explain action only in the trivialsense that actions have objects. If interestswere detached from the specific actions theyoriented, they would still remain multifarious,individual, and highly context dependent.Interests are also shaped by surroundingsituation: “[D]esire and interest are not givenready-made at the outset, . . . for desire alwaysemerges within a prior system of activities orinterrelated energies. It arises within a field”(Dewey 1939, p. 53). Neither are interestsindependent of each other; rather, each is “afunction of the set to which it belongs” in“definite existential contexts” (Dewey 1939,p. 18). But this contextual shaping of interestsin action does not imply they may be explainedby broad social contexts, nor that they areshaped in any systematic way. Thus, in Joas’s(1996, p. 133) later development, pragmatismbecomes a theory of “situated creativity,”rather than an account of interests in action.Other classical sociological challenges tosimple utilitarianism broadened the contextwithin which interest-oriented action wasunderstood to be shaped. Marx, like Weber,saw interest-oriented action as an essentialexplanatory principle, but ultimately reduciblelargely to material interests objectively determinedrelative to a social position. Objective,collective, and contradictory, interests expresssystemic social features and represent tendenciesfor behavior and conflict inherent insocial positions, so the direction of influencebetween macro- or meso-social processes andmicro-level interested action is the oppositeof that postulated by Weber. A corollary ofthis argument distinguishes people’s subjectiveaspirations from their real interests: what theiraction means when viewed inside the “objectivesituation” of social totality (Marx & Engels1978, pp. 160–61; see also Lukacs 1971, p. 51).In this sense, action may be oriented to endsthat undermine the actors’ objective interestsas derived from social position; however,this argument relies on the epistemologicallyproblematic notion that actors are thereforecharacterized by “false consciousness” (Marx1967, pp. 166–67; see also Clegg 1989, pp.111–15).Interested action is less important theoreticallyfor Durkheim than for Marx or Weber,but neither is it simply a characterization of
the relationship between action and object, as
it was for the pragmatists. For Durkheim, substantive
interests are certainly varied, as forWeber
and the pragmatists, and they become moreso with increasing social differentiation. However,
even interest-oriented action results from
the demands of solidarity as a “moral fact,” and
macro-social context determines the importance
of interest-oriented action. So, in complex
societies with organic solidarity, “collective
consciousness is increasingly reduced to the
cult of the individual” so that interest-oriented
action becomes more prevalent and individualism
more central to moral discourse (Durkheim
1984, p. 338). But only in dysfunctional transitional
social forms, and in the minds of utilitarians,
is micro-level interest-oriented action
simply egoistic determination and assessment
of optimal ends and means. Durkheim argues
this point forcibly regarding the noncontractual
basis of contract, which challenges as unrealistic
and unsustainable Spencer’s reduction
of modern social relations to the “vast system
of special contracts that link individuals . . . [in]
the spontaneous agreement between individual
interests” (Durkheim 1984, pp. 151–52;
1953).
Durkheim’s argument regarding complex
societies extends to Weber’s methodological
individualism. Weber (1978, p. 30) argued that,
for actors pursuing their own interests,
the more strictly rational (zweckrational ) their
action is, the more they will tend to react similarly
to the same situation. In this way there
arise similarities, uniformities, and continuities
in their attitudes and actions which are
often far more stable than they would be if
action were oriented to a system of norms.
But Durkheim (1984, p. 152) saw not predictability
but disorganization:
For where interest alone reigns, as nothing
arises to check the egoisms confronting one
another, each self finds itself in relation to the
other on a war footing. . . . Self-interest is, in
fact, the least constant thing in the world. Today
it is useful for me to unite with you; tomorrow
the same reason will make me your
enemy. Thus such a cause can give rise only to
transitory links and associations of a fleeting
kind. For Weber, the pursuit of self-interest without
normative regulation generates the stability of
the “iron cage”; for Durkheim, the normless
pursuit of self-interest threatened stable social
relations.
These fundamentally different positions
highlight a deep and persistent theoretical fissure.
Is interest-oriented action a fundamental
category of sociological analysis, essential for
understanding larger-scale social processes, or
is it a contingent consequence of those largerscale
social processes? At stake, as the quotations
suggest, are assessmen
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