Back to Norms! on the Scope and Dynamics of Norms and Normative Action

Abstract

Social norms and normativity are important parts of social change and social concern, as well as of social order. They are highly pertinent to a number of social disciplines. It is paradoxical that their theorizing and their study, at the core of neoclassical sociology, have been neglected for some time by sociologists, and major advances made from perspectives of rational choice. The marginalization of norms within recent sociology is critically discussed. An analytical field, and some tools for ploughing it, are laid out: of three basic kinds of norms, of normative and non-normative action, of different kinds of fundamental institutions, of bases of norm conformity, and of the dynamics and change of norms. The relevance of normative analysis to a range of areas, from globalization to families, is indicated.