Dlittle30

LATEST ARTICLES ( 866 )

• Entropic Social Mechanisms

  

  Many of the examples of mechanisms that we turn to in the social sciences are purposive, agental, and designed. But there is a fundamental feature of the natura... Read more

  Posted on 17 July 2014 SOCIETY

• Kathleen Tierney on Disaster and Resilience

  

  The fact of large-scale technology failure has come up fairly often in Understanding Society (link, link, link). There are a couple of reasons for this. Read more

  Posted on 11 July 2014 SOCIETY

• Mechanisms Thinking in International Relations Theory

  

  source: Alex Cooley, "America and Empire" (link)One of the most fundamental ideas underlying the philosophy of social science expressed here and elsewhere is th... Read more

  Posted on 07 July 2014 SOCIETY

• What Drives Organizational Performance?

  

  We have a pretty good idea of the characteristics that support very high individual performance in a variety of fields, from jazz to track to physics to... Read more

  Posted on 04 July 2014 SOCIETY

• Getting Inside People's Frames

  

  It seems clear that human beings bring specific frameworks of thought, ideas, emotions, and valuations to their social lives, and these frameworks affect both... Read more

  Posted on 01 July 2014 SOCIETY

• Saskia Sassen on Austerity and Social Exclusion

  The previous post summarized some of Kathleen Thelen's thinking about the prospects for a more egalitarian capitalism in our future. Read more

  Posted on 29 June 2014 SOCIETY

• Thelen on the Prospects for Egalitarian Capitalism

  

  source: Kathleen Thelen, Varieties of Liberalization (kl 3310)There is a version of economic historical thinking that we might label as "capitalist triumphalism... Read more

  Posted on 28 June 2014 SOCIETY

• Differences in Leadership Qualities Across Professions

  

  My university work involves quite a bit of interaction with leaders in different sectors of society — non-profits, elected officials, community organizations,... Read more

  Posted on 26 June 2014 SOCIETY

• A Catalogue of Social Mechanisms

  

  In an earlier post I made an effort at providing the beginnings of an inventory of social mechanisms from several areas of social research. Read more

  Posted on 21 June 2014 SOCIETY

• Craver on Mechanisms Methodology

  

  Carl Craver and Lindley Darden provide in In Search of Mechanisms: Discoveries across the Life Sciences an extensive treatment of what a mechanisms-based... Read more

  Posted on 19 June 2014 SOCIETY

• Ontology and Methodology

  Part of the dispute between analytical sociology and critical realists comes down to a complicated interplay between ontology and methodology. Read more

  Posted on 12 June 2014 SOCIETY

• Public Attitudes Towards Market Fundamentalism

  

  Several recent posts have raised the question, what would be needed to move US public policy towards a more equitable treatment of the bottom 75% of American... Read more

  Posted on 08 June 2014 SOCIETY

• Polanyi's Substantive Theory of a Decent Society

  Karl Polanyi is underrated as a theorist of capitalist modernity. Margaret Somers and Fred Block's latest book, The Power of Market Fundamentalism: Karl... Read more

  Posted on 05 June 2014 SOCIETY

• Basic Social Institutions and Democratic Equality

  

  We would like to think that it is possible for a society to embody basic institutions that work to preserve and enhance the wellbeing of all members of society... Read more

  Posted on 03 June 2014 SOCIETY

• Heterogeneity According to Cartwright

  

  Nancy Cartwright is one of the best philosophers of science around, in many people's opinion. I find her work particularly interesting for the new ways she... Read more

  Posted on 31 May 2014 SOCIETY

• Positive Social Change

  

  The City Year national leadership conference is taking place in Boston this week, celebrating the 25th anniversary of City Year. Read more

  Posted on 22 May 2014 SOCIETY

• Domain of the Social Sciences

  

  Is the domain of "all social phenomena" a valid subject for scientific study? Is there a place for a purely general sociology, designed to be a theory of the... Read more

  Posted on 17 May 2014 SOCIETY

• Are There Meso-level Social Mechanisms?

  

  It is fairly well accepted that there are social mechanisms underlying various patterns of the social world — free-rider problems, communications networks, etc. Read more

  Posted on 11 May 2014 SOCIETY

• Peggy Somers' Contribution to Realism

  

  Peggy Somers is an important contributor to the active field of sociological theory. And she identifies as a critical realist when it comes to understanding... Read more

  Posted on 10 May 2014 SOCIETY

• Liquid Modernity?

  

  image: Len Stomski, River Flow Zygmunt Bauman advocates for the idea of "liquid modernity" (Liquid Modernity). This view emphasizes the fact of change within... Read more

  Posted on 03 May 2014 SOCIETY