Dlittle30

LATEST ARTICLES ( 893 )

• Grand Hotel Abyss

  

  Georg Lukács in 1962 used the colorful image of a fictional "Grand Hotel Abyss" to express his disappointment in the theorists of the Frankfurt School. Read more

  Posted on 30 December 2016 SOCIETY

• Critical Points in History and Social Media

  

  Recent posts have grappled with the interesting topic of phase transitions in physics (link, link, link). One reason for being interested in this topic is its... Read more

  Posted on 29 December 2016 SOCIETY

• Menon and Callender on the Physics of Phase Transitions

  

  In an earlier post I considered the topic of phase transitions as a possible source of emergent phenomena (link). I argued there that phase transitions are... Read more

  Posted on 19 December 2016 SOCIETY

• More on Cephalopod Minds

  

  When I first posted on cephalopod intelligence a year or so ago, I assumed it would be a one-off diversion into the deep blue sea (link). Read more

  Posted on 13 December 2016 SOCIETY

• French Sociology

  

  Is sociology as a discipline different in France than in Germany or Britain? Or do common facts about the social world entail that sociology is everywhere the... Read more

  Posted on 08 December 2016 SOCIETY

• Processual Sociology

  

  Andrew Abbott is one of the thinkers within sociology who is not dependent upon a school of thought -- not structuralism, not positivism, not ethnomethodology,... Read more

  Posted on 01 December 2016 SOCIETY

• DeLanda on Historical Ontology

  

  A primary reason for thinking that assemblage theory is important is the fact that it offers new ways of thinking about social ontology. Read more

  Posted on 30 November 2016 SOCIETY

• What is the Role of Character in Action?

  

  I've been seriously interested in the question of character since being invited to contribute to a volume on the subject a few years ago. Read more

  Posted on 27 November 2016 SOCIETY

• Coarse-graining of Complex Systems

  

  The question of the relationship between micro-level and macro-level is just as important in physics as it is in sociology. Is it possible to derive the... Read more

  Posted on 24 November 2016 SOCIETY

• Ssha 2016

  

  Image: Palmer House lobbyThe 41st annual meeting of the Social Science History Association is underway in Chicago this weekend. Read more

  Posted on 19 November 2016 SOCIETY

• DeLanda on Concepts, Knobs, and Phase Transitions

  

  image: Carnap's notes on Frege's Begriffsschrift seminarPart of Manuel DeLanda's work in Assemblage Theory is his hope to clarify and extend the way that we... Read more

  Posted on 13 November 2016 SOCIETY

• Nine Years of Understanding Society

  

  image: Anasazi petroglyphs at Newspaper RockThis week marks the ninth anniversary of Understanding Society -- 1105 posts to date, or over 1.1 million words. Read more

  Posted on 06 November 2016 SOCIETY

• Coleman on the Classification of Social Action

  

  Early in his theoretical treatise of rational-choice sociology Foundations of Social Theory, James Coleman introduces a diagram of different kinds of social... Read more

  Posted on 29 October 2016 SOCIETY

• New Structural Economics

  

  Does economic theory provide anything like a concrete set of reliable policies for creating sustained economic growth in a middle-income country? Read more

  Posted on 26 October 2016 SOCIETY

• Rational Choice Institutionalism

  

  Where do institutions come from? And what kinds of social forces are at work to stabilize them once they are up and running? These are questions that... Read more

  Posted on 25 October 2016 SOCIETY

• A New Exposition of Assemblage Theory

  

  Manuel DeLanda has been a prominent exponent of the theory of assemblage for English-speaking readers for at least ten years. His 2006 book A New Philosophy of... Read more

  Posted on 12 October 2016 SOCIETY

• What is "conceptual History"?

  

  The post-war German historian Reinhart Koselleck made important contributions to the theory of history that are largely independent from the other sources of... Read more

  Posted on 05 October 2016 SOCIETY

• Guest Post by Paul Draus and Juliette Roddy

  

  Paul Draus and Juliette Roddy have been involved in street-level sociological research in Detroit for over ten years. Roddy is an economist and a member of the... Read more

  Posted on 02 October 2016 SOCIETY

• New Directions in the Philosophy of Social Science

  

  I am very happy to say that my new book appeared this week, New Directions in the Philosophy of Social Science. Thanks to all the people at Rowman ... Read more

  Posted on 24 September 2016 SOCIETY

• Measuring Happiness Internationally

  

  One reasonable way of thinking about the most fundamental goal of international economic development is to increase the level of human happiness in all... Read more

  Posted on 19 September 2016 SOCIETY