Interactionism – or symbolic interactionism - is a broad sociological perspective. It is a micro action theory rather than a macro structuralist one and is interpretivist rather than positivist. Associated with George Herbert Mead and Max Weber, it is a perspective that sees society as the product of human interactions, and the meanings that individuals place on those interactions. Instead of trying to explain human behaviour in the context of large social structures or fundamental conflicts or cleavages in society, they look on a smaller level, acknowledging that humans have agency and are not swept away by forces outside their control and create their own meanings. Weber recognised that small-scale interactions and social structures influenced human behaviour.