The myth of social action 1. Introduction 2. Action reported missing in action theory 3. Action and social action 4. Action versus social action 5. The rise of social situationalism 6. The argument by denial 7. Accounts and actions 8. The argument by exclusion 9. The argument through incorporation 10. The learning everything from others thesis 11. The communicative act paradigm 12. The linguistic turn for the worse 13. The myth of social action 14. The obstacle which is social situationalism 15. Epilogue: bringing action back in. The Myth of Social Action first published in 1996 is a powerful critique of the sociology of the time and a call to reject the prevailing orthodoxy. Arguing that sociological theory had lost its way Colin Campbell mounts a case for a new dynamic interpretivism a perspective on human conduct which is more inkeeping with the spirit of traditional Weberian action theory. Discussing and dismissing one by one the main arguments of those who reject individualistic action theory he demonstrates that this has been wrongly rejected in favour of the interactional social situationalist approach now dominating sociological thought