The Oxford Handbook of Analytical Sociology

by Peter Hedström, Peter Bearman

Overview

Analytical sociology is a strategy for understanding the social world. It is concerned with explaining important social facts such as network structures, patterns of residential segregation, typical beliefs, cultural tastes, and common ways of acting. It explains such facts not merely by relating them to other social facts, but by detailing in clear and precise ways the mechanisms through which the social facts were brought about. Making sense of the relationship between micro and macro thus is one of the central concerns of analytical sociology. The approach is a contemporary incarnation of Robert K. Merton's notion of middle-range theory and represents a vision of sociological theory as a tool-box of semi-general theories each of which is adequate for explaining certain types of phenomena. The Handbook of Analytical Sociology brings together some of the most prominent sociologists in the world in a concerted effort to move sociology in a more analytical and rigorous direction. Some of the chapters focus on action and interaction as the cogs and wheels of social processes, while others consider the dynamic social processes that these actions and interactions bring about.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199587452
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/15/2011
Series:	Oxford Handbooks
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	796
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 9.60(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

Peter Hedström is a Professor of Sociology and Dean of the School of Social Sciences at Singapore Management University, and Official Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford University. His area of specialization is analytical sociology. He has a special interest in the analysis of complex social networks, particularly analyses seeking to explain how the structure of the networks in which individuals are embedded influence the collective outcomes the individuals bring about.

Peter Bearman is Director of the Lazarsfeld Center for the Social Sciences, the Cole Professor of Social Science, and Co-Director of the Health & Society Scholars Program at Columbia University. A recipient of the NIH Director's Pioneer Award in 2007, Bearman is currently investigating the social determinants of the autism epidemic.

Table of Contents

Part One: Foundations
1. What is analytical sociology all about? An introductory essay, Peter Hedstrom and Peter Bearman
2. Analytical sociology and theories of the middle range, Peter Hedstrom and Lars Udehn
Part Two: Social Cogs and Wheels
3. Emotions, Jon Elster
4. Beliefs, Jens Rydgren
5. Preferences, Jeremy Freese
6. Opportunities, Trond Petersen
7. Heuristics, Dan Goldstein
8. Signaling, Diego Gambetta
9. Norms, Jon Elster
10. Trust, Karen Cook and Alexandra Gerbasi
Part Three: Social Dynamics
11. Social dynamics from the bottom up: Agent-based models of social interaction, Michael Macy and Andreas Flache
12. Segregation dynamics, Elizabeth Bruch and Robert Mare
13. Self fulfilling processes, Michael Biggs
14. Social influence: The puzzling nature of success in cultural markets, Matthew Salganik and Duncan Watts
15. Matching, Katherine Stovel and Christine Fountain
16. Collective action, Delia Baldassarri
17. Conditional choice, Meredith Rolfe
18. Network dynamics, James Moody
19. Threshold models of social influence, Duncan Watts and Peter Dodds
20. Time and scheduling, Christopher Winship
21. Homophily and the focused organization of ties, Scott Feld and Bernard Grofman
22. Status, Joel Podolny and Freda Lynn
23. Dominance hierarchies, Ivan Chase and W. Brent Lindquist
24. Conflict, Stathis Kalyvas
Part Four: Perspectives from Other Fields and Approaches
25. Game theory, Richard Breen
26. Experiments, Iris Bohnet
27. Surveys, Hannah Brueckner
28. Analytical ethnography, Diane Vaughan
29. Historical sociology, Karen Barkey

Editorial Reviews

"A fundamental reformulation of sociology, with profound implications across the social sciences."—Joshua M. Epstein, Professor of Emergency Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, author of Generative Social Science

"This formidable volume puts on display an impressive array of leading scholars, each grappling with key substantive and methodological topics in contemporary sociology. The chapters provide both a masterful summary of existing research and a valuable roadmap for future investigation."—Donald Green, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Yale University

"The Oxford Handbook of Analytical Sociology is a reference work that belongs on every working theorist's desk and not just warehouse in university libraries." —Contemporary Sociology

"The Oxford Handbook of Analytical Sociology represents an important step forward in the development of the analytical sociological research programme because its contributions move beyond earlier meta-theoretical statements to address substantive theoretical and methodological issues central to the discipline.By doing so the volume establishes analytical sociology as one of the more promising alternatives for pursuing a scientific and explanatory sociology."—British Journal of Sociology

From the Publisher