The Micro Contribution to Macro Sociology

It is a mistake to regard micro-macro program as merely theme the smaller better. I have argued, following precedent of various micro-reductionists (Blumer, Homans, ethnomethodologists) that we ought to translate macro sociological phenomena as much as possible into micro realities of which they are composed. (Notice, however, that I say translation, not all-out reduction; for there are irreducible macro features in spatial, temporal, and numerical arrangements among microsituations: Collins, 1988: 394-5.) It is not an argument against micro-translation to propose counter-examples in physical sciences, for instance to point out that structure of biological organisms is no more real than molecular level of DNA. The aim of