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| The combining of elements from separate sources to produce a coherent whole. Much of macro social theory consists of the synthesis of the ideas and insights of many theorists. |
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| The incorporation of disparate parts into a whole; the bringing of people of different ethnic groups into equal association. |
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| A conceptual approach that lacks commitment to any single paradigm or theoretical strategy. |
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| A theoretical framework or worldview within which middle-range theories and generalizations regarding social reality are formulated and tested. |
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| Theories of cumulative sociocultural change that generally hold that human societies move from simple to complex forms of organization. |
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| The interface between a sociocultural system and its environment. |
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| In sociology, all human institutions, groups, and organizations. |
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| The application of ever expanding technology and labour techniques to increase productivity. |
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| A societal condition in which virtually all social institutions (government, family, education) have adapted to the demands of the industrial economy. |
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| Weber's term for the process by which modes of precise calculation based on observation and reason increasingly dominate the social world. |
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| The tendency of bureaucracies to refine their procedures to attain their goals ever more efficiently. More generally, the process of secondary organizations taking over functions performed by primary groups. |
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| Rational action in relation to a goal; one of Weber’s four action types. |
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| A distinctive kind of change associated with systems composed of multiple, interrelated parts. Within these systems, some parts change while others remain unchanged. |
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| Weber’s term that refers to value-oriented rationality. The value may come from an ethical, religious, philosophical or even holistic context. |
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| The process by which members of a group make the ideas, values, and norms of the group their own. |
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| In sociocultural materialism, the symbolic universe—the shared meanings, ideas, beliefs, values, and ideologies that people associate with the physical and social world. |
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