Course Syllabus
Course description. This course provides an examination of the logic of social science research and theory through the writings of social scientists and philosophers. The emphasis is on comparative and qualitative forms of social science and theory. The fields of contentious politics and the new sociology of knowledge receive extended attention. The philosophy of social science is a discipline that analyzes the logic, methodology, modes of explanation, and methods of inquiry of the social sciences. The past dozen years have witnessed an explosion of valuable debate about foundational issues in sociology and other social sciences. The course is based on the assumption that social research and theory will benefit from a better understanding of the conceptual and methodological issues that arise in the conduct of social science research. Central topics will include the logic of comparative social science, the role of theories of the actor, theories of causal mechanisms and powers, the theory of critical realism, the position of ontological individualism, and the nature of the social. The course will make use of recent writings by such social scientists as Brian Epstein, Neil Fligstein, Doug McAdam, Roy Bhaskar, George Steinmetz, Erving Goffman, Chuck Tilly, and Neil Gross as we explore recent debates about the foundations of social science research and theory.
Course requirements. Student performance will be evaluated on the basis of class participation and written work. Students will be asked to lead discussion of a topic several times during the semester. Two papers (12-15 pages); regular class participation and presentation. I expect you to be prepared to discuss course readings on the assigned date.
The course readings are entirely digital and the required books are available in Kindle format at substantially reduced cost.
Required texts
Bhaskar, Roy, A Realist Theory of Science.
Camic, Charles, Neil Gross, Michele Lamont. Social Knowledge in the Making.
Epstein, Brian. The Ant Trap.
Fligstein, Neil and Doug McAdam, A Theory of Fields. Oxford University Press.
Goffman, Erving. Behavior in Public Places.
Hedström, Peter. 2005. Dissecting the Social: On the Principles of Analytical Sociology. Cambridge University Press.
McAdam, Doug, Sidney Tarrow, Charles Tilly. 2001. Dynamics of Contention. Cambridge University Press.
Recommended text
Little, Daniel. Varieties of Social Explanation (Kindle edition). 2012.
[Click here for links to required texts.]
Topics and readings
1/11/16
Current debates
Why do we need a philosophy of sociology?
What are some key areas of questions that need answers concerning the goals, methods, and findings of the social sciences?
What is “the social”?
We need to think afresh about the nature of the social world. “Systems,” “structures,” “institutions,” “actors,” “networks,” “relationships,” “organizations,” “movements,” and “bureaucracies” all invoke a different set of ideas about what the social world is.
Ontology; methodological localism
POSTS:
Why "philosophy of social science"?
Tributaries of the philosophy of the social sciences
Components of positivism
Neo-positivist philosophy of social science
Realism for the social sciences?
Microfoundationalism
New ideas about structure and agency
Localism and assemblage theory
1/18/16
MARTIN LUTHER KING HOLIDAY
NO CLASS
1/25/16
Contentious politics
Collective behavior and contentious politics are at the core of many kinds of sociological phenomena.
McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly’s Dynamics of Contention provide an extended example of social science reasoning.
MTT provide an account based on analysis of social mechanisms.
POSTS:
Collective behavior and resource mobilization
Why does unrest spread?
Microstructure of strife
Contentious politics in China
Marx's theory of political behavior
Labor mobilization
READINGS:
McAdam, Tarrow, Tilly, Dynamics of Contention (chapters 1-6, 10)
McCarthy and Zald, “The Enduring Vitality of Resource Mobilization Theory” (chapter 25 of Jonathan Turner, ed., Handbook of Sociological Theory)
Video of Tilly interview
Video of Doug McAdam interview
2/1/16
Critical realism
POSTS:
Bhaskar’s core ideas
Kaidesoja's naturalistic social ontology
Cruickshank on philosophical issues with critical realism
Cruickshank’s central critique
Elder-Vass on social realism
The social world as morphogenesis
Microfoundations and causal powers
READINGS:
Bhaskar, A Realist Theory of Science (chapters 1,2)
Phil Gorski, What is critical realism?
George Steinmetz, Critical realism and historical sociology
Tuukka Kaidesoja, Exploring the concept of causal power in a critical realist tradition
2/8/16
Metaphysics of powers
POSTS:
Causality and metaphysics
Causal powers from a metaphysical point of view
Mechanisms and powers
READINGS:
Cartwright, "Capacities and Abstractions"
Elder-Vass, "Normative Institutions"
Groff, "Getting Past Hume in the Philosophy of Social Science" (Mckay-Illari)
Mumford, "Causal Powers and Capacities" (Oxford Handbook of Causality)
2/15/16 [rescheduled 2/18/16]
Analytic sociology
A new orientation to sociology has emerged bringing together the ideas of social mechanisms, individual rationality, and aggregative explanation. This is called “analytical sociology.” Peter Hedström and others have made the case that this approach provides strong methodology for sociology.
POSTS:
Peter Demeulenaere on analytical sociology
Alternatives to analytical sociology
Marx an analytical sociologist?
READINGS:
Peter Hedström, Dissecting the Social (all)
Hedström and Bearman, introduction to Oxford Handbook of Analytical Sociology [available as "sample" for Kindle title, Bearman and Hedstrom, Oxford Handbook of Analytical Sociology, chapter 1; FREE]; just download the sample into your Kindle or Kindle app on any tablet or PC.]
Gianluca Manzo, “Analytical Sociology and Its Critics”
Little, Beyond Analytical Sociology [in "Sociologica Symposium" included in Files]
Poe Yu-ze Wan, “Analytical Sociology: A Bungean Appreciation”
2/22/16
Causal mechanisms
A core aspect of scientific explanation is the idea of causation. In the social world we don’t have strong causal laws. But we are able to identify concrete causal mechanisms that are components of important processes of social change and stability. Some of these were illustrated in Dynamics of Contention. A large group of philosophers and social scientists now focus on causal mechanisms.
POSTS:
Causal mechanisms
Social "laws" and causal mechanisms
Are there discrete social mechanisms?
Causal realism for sociology
Do organizations have causal powers?
READINGS:
Little, VSE, chapter 2
Mahoney, “Beyond Correlational Analysis: Recent Innovations in Theory and Method,” Sociological Forum 16:3 (2001)
Woodward
Ylikoski
2/29/16
SPRING BREAK
3/7/16
Actor-based sociology
Why do individuals behave as they do? What is a human actor? How do concrete processes of socialization help to shape the actor? How do larger social processes aggregate out of the behavior of social actors?
Rational choice theory, purposive rationality, new institutionalism, incentives and constraints
POSTS:
Social agency and rational choice
Acting, deliberating, performing
Acting as a group
What is a norm?
Norms and deliberative rationality
Polanyi on the market
The new institutionalism
Institutions, procedures, norms
Trust networks
READINGS:
Little, Varieties of Social Explanation (VSE), chapter 3
Victor Nee, “Sources of the New Institutionalism”
Green and Shapiro, Pathologies of Rational Choice (chapter two)
Dennis Chong, “Rational Choice Theory’s Mysterious Rivals”, Critical Review 9:1-2 (1995).
3/14/16
Against individualism
Is ontological individualism a compelling position?
Do social facts require microfoundations at the individual level?
Is Coleman’s boat a valid picture of social ontology?
POSTS:
Supervenience and the social: Epstein's critique
Emergentism and generationism
Microfoundations for rules and ascriptions
Do we still need microfoundations?
Microfoundations 2.0?
READINGS:
Epstein, The Ant Trap (all)
Little, Supervenience (Files)
Little, Microfoundations (Files)
…
3/21/16
Micro-sociology
What can we learn from close observation of social interactions at the local level? Goffman and Garfinkel believe we can learn a lot.
Here we examine the nature of everyday interactions and the social competences that underlie them.
POSTS:
Concrete sociological knowledge
Goffman's program
Everyday social interactions
Darnton's history
Norbert Elias on the individual
Garfinkel on social competence
Granularity
READINGS:
Erving Goffman, Behavior in Public Places (All)
Garfinkel, Ethnomethodology, chapter 1
Geertz, Thick Description
Video of Mayer Zald interview
3/28/16
Relational and pragmatist sociology
Some contemporary sociologists are skeptical of the actor-centered approach to social science. Neil Gross and Andrew Abbott argue for a pragmatist and relational understanding of the social world. How does this overturn common assumptions?
POSTS:
Neil Gross’s pragmatist sociology
READINGS:
Neil Gross, “Charles Tilly and American Pragmatism”
Neil Gross, “A Pragmatist Theory of Social Mechanisms”
Andrew Abbott, “Mechanisms and Relations
Little, Actor-Centered Sociology and the New Pragmatism
4/4/16
No class – travel to Bangalore
4/11/16
Theory of fields
POSTS:
Comparative history
Variation as a social fundamental
Contingent historical development
READINGS:
Fligstein and McAdam, Theory of Fields (TBA)
4/18/16
New sociology of knowledge
Is it possible to study “sociology” from a sociological point of view? Are academic disciplines themselves sociological phenomena? Are professions like psychiatry and carpentry distinct sociological phenomena?
POSTS:
Basis for the social science disciplines
French sociology as a distinct tradition
Was Durkheim a professional sociologist?
The professions as an object of study
READINGS:
Camic, Gross, Lamont, Social Knowledge in the Making (Introduction, Abbott, Gross and Fleming, Lamont and Huutoniemi, Jasanoff, Breslau, Cetina)
4/18/16
FINAL PAPER DUE
4/25/16
Exam day
Course Summary:
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