Unintended Consequences of Sociai Action: A Preliminary Analysis

Abstract

This paper intends (1) to emphasize the importance of the notion “unintended consequences of social action” and (2) to criticize the notion so as to make it useful for sociological analyses. Firstly, we showed that many sociologists and social scientists had pointed out the phenomena which could be explained in terms of the notion. Nevertheless, their analyses are too simple to utilize as a tool in our investigation. Some of the most active sociologists in contemporary Japan realized and noted the importance and relevance of the notion (or processes) to further their own research. Among the sociologists who studied on or in terms of the “unintended consequences” are R. Merton and R. Boudon. We examined Merton's notion of ‘latent function’ and ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ and made clear their relation to “unintended consequences.” Additionally, We analyzed Boudon's taxonomy and presented the alternative way of classification. We examined the seemingly odd nature of Boudon's typology of social theories. We made clear that Boudon's typology was not at all ad hoc but quite natural and logical once we had realized that the classification is based on his “methodological individualism”. © 1989, Japanese Association For Mathematical Sociology. All rights reserved.