‘Micro’ and ‘macro’ in Parsons and Luhmann’s theories: A metatheoretical discussion

Abstract

The aim of this article is to revisit the wide-ranging controversy over the ‘micro-macro’ distinction in social theory, focusing on the work of Talcott Parsons and Niklas Luhmann. The main objective is to present arguments questioning the interpretation of these two theoretical proposals as representative of sociology exclusively in the macro level. Firstly, the ‘micro-macro’ concepts are problematised, which we understand as categories to distinguish social phenomena in a time-space scale. Then, we present an analysis of the conceptual strategies applied by Parsons and Luhmann to tackle the ‘micro-macro’ dilemma sociologically.