Between theory and research. The role of the Columbia tradition in Analytical sociology's effort to analyzing macro social patterns and structural mechanisms for sociological explanation.

The paper analyzes the continuity line existing between the proposals of some authors belonging to analytical sociology on the usefulness and productivity of macrosocial patterns and structural mechanisms and both Lazarsfeld’s analyses on the logic of macrosociology and Merton and Blau’s analyses on social structure. Rather than calling into question the solutions that actionist theories offer for a micro-foundation of macro-phenomena, this attention towards macrosociology and structural mechanisms prepares the ground for a better solution of the integration micro/macro.