Dlittle30

LATEST ARTICLES ( 866 )

• Refinements of Social Functionalism

  

  Robert Merton is one of the most sophisticated exponents of a qualified functionalism in sociology (Social Theory and Social Structure). He finds that earlier... Read more

  Posted on 30 September 2017 SOCIETY

• Sustaining a Philosophy Research Community

  

  The European Network for Philosophy of Social Science (ENPOSS) completed its annual conference in Krakow last week. It was a stimulating and productive... Read more

  Posted on 28 September 2017 SOCIETY

• Experiencing the Holocaust

  

  When we think we know about an historical event -- the French Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, the Jim Crow years in America -- generally what we know is a... Read more

  Posted on 20 September 2017 SOCIETY

• Worker-owned Enterprises as a Social Solution

  

  image: Mondragon headquarters, Arrasate-Mondragon, SpainConsider some of the most intractable problems we face in contemporary society: rising inequalities... Read more

  Posted on 17 September 2017 SOCIETY

• Responding to Hate

  

  The Southern Poverty Law Center documents that hate groups and hate-based mobilization are on the rise in the United States (link, link). Read more

  Posted on 10 September 2017 SOCIETY

• Erik Olin Wright on Real Utopias

  

  Erik Olin Wright is one of the genuinely important contributors to a progressive sociology in the United States. He was one of the first wave of social... Read more

  Posted on 04 September 2017 SOCIETY

• New Thinking About Causal Mechanisms

  

  Anyone interested in the topic of causal mechanisms will be interested in the appearance of Stuart Glennan and Phyllis Illari's The Routledge Handbook of... Read more

  Posted on 30 August 2017 SOCIETY

• Guest Post by Dave Elder-Vass

  

  [Dave Elder-Vass accepted my invitation to write a response to my discussion of moral realism. (link). Elder-Vass is Reader in sociology at Loughborough... Read more

  Posted on 22 August 2017 SOCIETY

• Moral Progress and Critical Realism

  

  Critical realists share a rejection of the fact-value distinction as a fundamental criterion of scientific rationality -- and rightly so (link). Read more

  Posted on 12 August 2017 SOCIETY

• Time for a Critical-realist Epistemology

  

  The critical realism network in North America is currently convened in Montreal in a three-day intensive workshop (link). In attendance are many of the... Read more

  Posted on 08 August 2017 SOCIETY

• The Guardian Drops the Ball ...

  

  The Guardian posted a short documentary video on the city where I live, Dearborn, Michigan (link). The video is, frankly, a careless, sensationalized, and... Read more

  Posted on 05 August 2017 SOCIETY

• First Generation Anti-positivism: Wellmer

  

  In Critical Theory Of Society (1969) Albrecht Wellmer announced a critique of positivist assumptions in the study of society. Proceeding from the perspective... Read more

  Posted on 03 August 2017 SOCIETY

• Dynamics of Medieval Cities

  

  Cities provide a good illustration of the ontology of the theory of assemblage (link). Many forms of association, production, logistics, governance, and... Read more

  Posted on 29 July 2017 SOCIETY

• Contingency and Explanation

  

  Social change and historical events are highly contingent processes, in a specific sense: they are the result of multiple causal influences that "could have bee... Read more

  Posted on 27 July 2017 SOCIETY

• A New Model of Organization?

  

  In Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World General Stanley McChrystal (with Tantum Collins, David Silverman, and Chris Fussel) describes a... Read more

  Posted on 21 July 2017 SOCIETY

• Chinese Modernization c. 1930

  

  At the end of the nineteenth century -- which was also of the end of the Qing Dynasty -- China was not "modern". Its political institutions had crumbled, it... Read more

  Posted on 12 July 2017 SOCIETY

• Morphogenesis and Social Norms

  

  Critical realism pays particular attention to the enduring structures that underlie various social orders and processes. But as argued in an earlier post, CR... Read more

  Posted on 03 July 2017 SOCIETY

• Jobs, Basic Income, and the Future of the Techno-market Economy

  

  In the dystopian vision of the future described in William Gibson's Sprawl novels, there are few people with normal jobs, regular sources of income, retirement... Read more

  Posted on 02 July 2017 SOCIETY

• Guest Post by Guus Duindam

  Guus Duindam is a J.D./Ph.D. student in philosophy at the University of Michigan. His primary areas of interest are Ethics and Kant. Read more

  Posted on 28 June 2017 SOCIETY

• Sociology of Life Expectations

  

  Each individual has a distinctive personality and orienting set of values. It is intriguing to wonder how these features take shape in the individual's... Read more

  Posted on 27 June 2017 SOCIETY