Part 1 The micro-foundations of social knowledge; 1 Notes on the integration of micro- and macro-levels of analysis; 2 Micro-translation as a theory-building strategy; 3 Intermediate steps between micro- and macro- integration: the case of screening for inherited disorders;
Part 2 Action and structure: the cognitive organization of symbolic practice. 4 Philosophical aspects of the micro-macro problem 5 Agency, institution and time-space analysis; 6 Social ritual and relative truth in natural language; Part 3 Toward a reconstruction of systems perspectives; 7 Transformational theory and the internal environment of action systems;
8 Communication about law in interaction systems; Part 4 The production of societal macro-structures: aspects of a political economy of practice;
9 Toward a reconstruction of historical materialism; 10 Unscrewing the big Leviathan: how actors macro- structure reality and how sociologists help them to do so. 11 Men and machines Index of names; Index of subjects

After a period in which sociology was torn apart by the polarized claims of micro- and macro-methodology, an increasing number of sociologists are now attempting a fusion of the two approaches. In this volume, some of the most distinguished sociologists set out possible resolutions of the debate. Each of the chapters, placed in perspective by the editors' prologue, approaches the problem from a unique angle. Aaron Cicourel argues for a macro-basis of social interaction; Randall Collins shows how the macro consists of an aggregate of micro-episodes; Troy Duster presents a methodological model