Micro-Macro Integration

One of the most important developments in recent sociological theory has been the move toward an integration of [Page 502]microlevels and macrolevels of analysis. This does not mean to imply that there was a hard and fast line between microlevel and macrolevel perspectives previously, it was indeed a continuum, but rather that the integration of the two has come to be a larger focus than either one of them individually. It was this primary focus on either micro or macro theories that was one of the major splits in sociology until the 1980s, when the integration first became a focal interest.

Ironically, the founding fathers of sociology (Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Simmel) were concerned with linking the micro to the macro and vice versa in their theories. ...