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Rational Choice and Sociology

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The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics

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Abstract

Rational-choice theorizing has a long tradition within sociology, but has always been controversial and contested. Yet it has influenced the theoretical vocabulary of the discipline at large and has made deep inroads into some important sociological areas such as social movements, social mobility, and religion. Most sociological rational-choice theories assume that actors act rationally in a broad sense, and focus on the aggregate outcomes that individual actors in interaction with one another are likely to bring about. This article reviews the most important contributions to the rational-choice tradition in sociology, and briefly discusses its historical past and its likely future.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. http://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5

    Peter Hedström & Charlotta Stern

Authors
  1. Peter Hedström
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  2. Charlotta Stern
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Additional information

We wish to thank Peter Abell, Filippo Barbera, Larry Blume, Richard Breen, Diego Gambetta, John Goldthorpe, Siegwart Lindenberg, Lars Udehn, Peyton Young, and Victor Nee for their useful comments.

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© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

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Hedström, P., Stern, C. (2018). Rational Choice and Sociology. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2736

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