Research Catalog

Title

Rational choice theory : resisting colonization / edited by Margaret S. Archer and Jonathon Q. Tritter.

Publication

London ; New York : Routledge, 2000.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Archer, Margaret S. (Margaret Scotford)
• Tritter, Jonathan Q., 1965-

Description

xii, 257 p. : ill.; 24 cm.

Summary

Rational Choice Theory is the first book length critique of this theory, dominant in sociology outside the UK and now making in roads in the UK, and increasingly influential in other disciplines. This controversial volume argues that the theory is an inadequate way in which to evaluate decision making inadequate in terms of: * the individuals who make the decisions * the process by which decisions get made * the context within which decisions get made. The critique focuses on the four assumptions which are the bedrock of rational choice; rationality, individualism, process and aggregation and draws on a wide range of social issues, including race, marriage, health and education.

Series Statement

Critical realism--interventions

Uniform Title

Critical realism--interventions.

Subjects

• Rational choice theory
• Rationele keuze
• Soziologie
• Rational Choice

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [234]-248) and indexes.

Contents

1. Introduction / Margaret S. Archer and Jonathan Q. Tritter -- pt. I. Rationality -- 2. The bird in hand: rational choice -- the default mode of social theorizing / Peter Wagner -- 3. Homo economicus, Homo sociologicus and Homo sentiens / Margaret S. Archer -- 4. Is rational choice theory 'unreasonable'? The neglected emotions / Simon J. Williams -- pt. II. Individualism -- 5. Social theory and the underclass: social realism or rational choice individualism? / Justin Cruickshank -- 6. (Ir)rational choice: a multidimensional approach to choice and constraint in decisions about marriage, divorce and remarriage / Kay Peggs and Richard Lampard -- 7. Switching allegiances: decisions by schools to 'opt out' to self-management / Jonathan Q. Tritter -- 8. Rational choice or 'Hobson's choice'? Intention and constraint in UK higher education / Andrew Parker -- pt. III. Temporality -- 9. 'I do': a theoretical critique of Becker's rational choice approach to marriage decisions / Ian Procter -- 10. Decision-making as a process over time: the careers of home-located cultural workers / Carol Wolkowitz -- 11. The decision to commit a crime against humanity / Robert Fine and David Hirsh -- 12. 'Race', ethnicity and housing decisions: rational choice theory and the choice-constraints debate / Peter Ratcliffe -- 13. 'When the battle's lost and won' / James A. Beckford.

ISBN

• 0415242711
• 9780415242714
• 041524272X
• 9780415242721

LCCN

• 00059244
• 9780415242721

OCLC

• ocm44713283
• 44713283
• SCSB-8799307

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library