Parsons' «The structure of social action» and contemporary debates

The publication in 1937 of The Structure of Social Action is generally considered to be a crucial event in the sociological theory of the century just concluded. The work has been an indispensable point of reference for numerous theoretical issues addressed by sociology: from the role of the "classics" in sociological debate to the sociology's relations with economics, from the critique of utilitarianism to the status of symbolic and normative elements in the orientation of action, from the epistemological status of the subjective categories to the theory of social integration.

More than sixty years after publication of The Structure of Social Action , and at the beginning of the new century, it is therefore appropriate to conduct a critical re-reading of the contents of the work and of its principal lines of argument in the light of subsequent developments in the theory of action and of contemporary theoretical debates. Far from being purely celebratory in its approach, the aim of this book is to examine the contemporary relevance of The Structure to the development of sociological theory, and to assess the extent to which the conceptual resources made available by the book continue to motivate and sustain contemporary theoretical analysis.