The problem of "action and structure" in the general theoretical sociology: A critical review of Thomas J. Fararo The Meaning of General Theoretical Sociology

Thomas J. Fararo, who is one of the founders of contemporary mathematical sociology has made a comprehensive survey of the sociological traditions in his book The Meaning of the General Theoretical Sociology. In this book he has pointed out" the unification process" of three traditions of sociological theories - systems thinking, theory of action, structuralism - and draw a brief outline in the generative structuralism that is supposed to be generated from the process. In his idea the microsociology and the macro-sociology, or the action theory and the structural theory harmoniously unified in the generative structuralism. Yet because it is also based on the substantialism of action and structure, it may be not able to solve the problem of conceptual circulation between action and structure which traditional sociological theories could not have solved. Therefore his idea of the generative structuralism is not in the right direction of the unification process" in the general theoretical sociology.