Control Systems Theory, a newly developing theoretical perspective, starts from an important insight into human behaviour: that people attempt to control the world around them as they perceive it. This book brings together for the first time the work of prominent sociologists contributing to the development of this wideranging theoretical paradigm.
"Assembling an outstanding line up of established leaders and rising stars, McClelland and Fararo review works from all the major control theoretical approaches in sociology. More than any prior efforts, their research exhibits a remarkable array and depth of empirical applications. Without even a wisp of immodesty, this book shows what can be accomplished by a rigorous scientific approach to sociological theory and research." - Barry Markovsky, University of South Carolina
"Purpose, Meaning, and Action shows that progress can be made, that there can be bridges built between the old and the new and that doing this is difficult work. These seventeen distinguished authors have done an amazing job in adapting the approach of Perceptual Control Theory to a field where data tend to be slippery and guideposts are a long way apart. It looks as if sociology has taken a long step down a new path." - William T. Powers, author of Behavior: The Control of Perception
"Purpose, Meaning, and Action shows that progress can be made, that there can be bridges built between the old and the new and that doing this is difficult work. These seventeen distinguished authors have done an amazing job in adapting the approach of Perceptual Control Theory to a field where data tend to be slippery and guideposts are a long way apart. It looks as if sociology has taken a long step down a new path." - William T. Powers, author of Behavior: The Control of Perception