Coleman critiques and synthesizes two popular academic perspectives on human economic action: Rational Action Theory, and the Socialized Actor. The Rational Actor perspective claims that agents have control over their resources and actions and can pursue their own self-interest but tends to ignore the external influence of the agent’s social environment. The socialized view sees human action as a result historical and social norms and values that dictate individual economic decision making but lacks an adequate explanation for internal motivation. Coleman uses dimensions of Social Capital to bridge the gap between these two perspectives, introducing an theory to human action that both accounts for the influence of social structures on the individual while allowing room for autonomous agency in pursuing economic action.