Explanation And Social Theory

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Explanation and Social Theory

John Holmwood,Alexander Stewart,Kitty Chisholm
Explanation and Social Theory Book PDF

Author : John Holmwood,Alexander Stewart,Kitty Chisholm
Publisher : Springer
Page : 254 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2016-07-27
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781349216277

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Explanation and Social Theory by John Holmwood,Alexander Stewart,Kitty Chisholm Pdf

The book ranges widely over modern social theory, giving detailed treatments of major sources to identify common themes and deficiencies in apparently disparate schools of thought. The object is to lay bare negative assumptions forming methodologies in modern social theory in order to redirect the social sciences towards real problems and the progressive consequences of their solution. Examples are given and, throughout, the continuity of particular and general concerns is demonstrated.

Colonialism and Modern Social Theory

Gurminder K. Bhambra,John Holmwood
Colonialism and Modern Social Theory Book PDF

Author : Gurminder K. Bhambra,John Holmwood
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 204 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2021-05-18
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781509541317

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Colonialism and Modern Social Theory by Gurminder K. Bhambra,John Holmwood Pdf

Modern society emerged in the context of European colonialism and empire. So, too, did a distinctively modern social theory, laying the basis for most social theorising ever since. Yet colonialism and empire are absent from the conceptual understandings of modern society, which are organised instead around ideas of nation state and capitalist economy. Gurminder K. Bhambra and John Holmwood address this absence by examining the role of colonialism in the development of modern society and the legacies it has bequeathed. Beginning with a consideration of the role of colonialism and empire in the formation of social theory from Hobbes to Hegel, the authors go on to focus on the work of Tocqueville, Marx, Weber, Durkheim and Du Bois. As well as unpicking critical omissions and misrepresentations, the chapters discuss the places where colonialism is acknowledged and discussed – albeit inadequately – by these founding figures; and we come to see what this fresh rereading has to offer and why it matters. This inspiring and insightful book argues for a reconstruction of social theory that should lead to a better understanding of contemporary social thought, its limitations, and its wider possibilities.

Social Theory

Mark Murphy
Social Theory Book PDF

Author : Mark Murphy
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 315 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2021-08-22
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9783030783242

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Social Theory by Mark Murphy Pdf

This textbook delivers a new thematic introduction to social theory that explores theoretical issues in their contemporary social contexts. Each chapter is devoted to a specific thematic area, including the state, governance, the economy, civil society, culture, language, knowledge, the self, emotions, the body, and social justice. Each chapter details the key issues for debate and the relevant theories while linking those debates and theories to everyday life. Distributed throughout the chapters are focused sections on key concepts and their research applications, alongside helpful additional detail including a glossary, further suggested readings, chapter summaries, and questions for discussion. The book also provides useful information on key theoretical movements such as feminism, Marxism, and post-structuralism, as well as biographies of key theorists. As such, it reflects the breadth of social theory and its interdisciplinary nature by drawing on thinkers not just from sociology, but also from philosophy, history, literature, geography, cultural and gender studies. The book’s logical structure and clear pedagogical features make it an appealing and accessible introductory text for students new to social theory. The chapters demonstrate the relevance of social theory to everyday life, such that readers can understand and actively engage with key concepts.

Theory and Explanation in Social Psychology

Bertram Gawronski,Galen V. Bodenhausen
Theory and Explanation in Social Psychology Book PDF

Author : Bertram Gawronski,Galen V. Bodenhausen
Publisher : Guilford Publications
Page : 449 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2015-01-07
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9781462518487

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Theory and Explanation in Social Psychology by Bertram Gawronski,Galen V. Bodenhausen Pdf

This volume provides the first authoritative explication of metatheoretical principles in the construction and evaluation of social-psychological theories. Leading international authorities review the conceptual foundations of the field's most influential approaches, scrutinizing the range and limits of theories in various areas of inquiry. The chapters describe basic principles of logical inference, illustrate common fallacies in theoretical interpretations of empirical findings, and outline the unique contributions of different levels of analysis. An in-depth look at the philosophical foundations of theorizing in social psychology, the book will be of interest to any scholar or student interested in scientific explanations of social behavior.

Interpretation and Social Knowledge

Isaac Ariail Reed
Interpretation and Social Knowledge Book PDF

Author : Isaac Ariail Reed
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 205 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2011-08-15
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780226706726

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Interpretation and Social Knowledge by Isaac Ariail Reed Pdf

For the past fifty years anxiety over naturalism has driven debates in social theory. One side sees social science as another kind of natural science, while the other rejects the possibility of objective and explanatory knowledge. Interpretation and Social Knowledge suggests a different route, offering a way forward for an antinaturalist sociology that overcomes the opposition between interpretation and explanation and uses theory to build concrete, historically specific causal explanations of social phenomena.

The Explanation of Social Action

John Levi Martin
The Explanation of Social Action Book PDF

Author : John Levi Martin
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2011-06-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780199773442

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The Explanation of Social Action by John Levi Martin Pdf

The Explanation of Social Action is a sustained critique of the conventional understanding of what it means to "explain" something in the social sciences. It makes the strong argument that the traditional understanding involves asking questions that have no clear foundation and provoke an unnecessary tension between lay and expert vocabularies. Drawing on the history and philosophy of the social sciences, John Levi Martin exposes the root of the problem as an attempt to counterpose two radically different types of answers to the question of why someone did a certain thing: first person and third person responses. The tendency is epitomized by attempts to explain human action in "causal" terms. This "causality" has little to do with reality and instead involves the creation and validation of abstract statements that almost no social scientist would defend literally. This substitution of analysts' imaginations over actors' realities results from an intellectual history wherein social scientists began to distrust the self-understanding of actors in favor of fundamentally anti-democratic epistemologies. These were rooted most defensibly in a general understanding of an epistemic hiatus in social knowledge and least defensibly in the importation of practices of truth production from the hierarchical setting of institutions for the insane. Martin, instead of assuming that there is something fundamentally arbitrary about the cognitive schemes of actors, focuses on the nature of judgment. This implies the need for a social aesthetics, an understanding of the process whereby actors intuit intersubjectively valid qualities of complex social objects. In this thought-provoking and ambitious book, John Levi Martin argues that the most promising way forward to such a science of social aesthetics will involve a rigorous field theory.

Sociological Theory in Use (RLE Social Theory)

Kenneth Menzies
Sociological Theory in Use RLE Social Theory Book PDF

Author : Kenneth Menzies
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 265 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2014-08-21
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317657194

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Sociological Theory in Use (RLE Social Theory) by Kenneth Menzies Pdf

Central to most sociologists’ self-image is the claim that their theories are based on research. However, using a random sample of 680 articles appearing in major American, British and Canadian journals, Dr Menzies shows that in some areas of sociology the wide gap between theory and research means that much of sociological theory is virtually untested. He explains how theory is embodied in eight particular types of research, critically examines these research theories, and contrasts them with the positions of modern theorists. The sample of journal articles also permits a comparison of British, American and Canadian sociology. By contrasting on how researchers us theories, Dr Menzies is able to reassess several theories. For instance, symbolic interactionist research uses embedded causal claims and stands in a dialectical relationship to other sociological research, while the research version of conflict theory depends on external causes to explain social change. The implications of using statistical techniques like factor analysis and regression are also considered in relation to the form of explanation.

Central Problems in Social Theory

Anthony Giddens
Central Problems in Social Theory Book PDF

Author : Anthony Giddens
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 1979-11-29
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0520039750

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Central Problems in Social Theory by Anthony Giddens Pdf

"One of the most creative among the younger generation of critical social theorists, Giddens stands alone in his concern for the classical tradition on sociology; but he also makes brilliant use of the latest philosophical and theoretical work of several contemporary schools and disciplines. A very important book for all of social science."—Jeffrey C. Alexander

Logics of Critical Explanation in Social and Political Theory

Jason Glynos,David Howarth
Logics of Critical Explanation in Social and Political Theory Book PDF

Author : Jason Glynos,David Howarth
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 542 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2007-09-12
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781134138357

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Logics of Critical Explanation in Social and Political Theory by Jason Glynos,David Howarth Pdf

This book proposes a novel approach to practising social and political analysis based on the role of logics. The authors articulate a distinctive perspective on social science explanation that avoids the problems of scientism and subjectivism by steering a careful course between lawlike explanations and thick descriptions. Drawing upon hermeneutics, poststructuralism, psychoanalysis, and post-analytical philosophy, this new approach offers a particular set of logics – social, political and fantasmatic – with which to construct critical explanations of practices and regimes. While the first part of the book critically engages with lawlike, interpretivist and causal approaches to critical explanation, the second part elaborates an alternative grammar of concepts informed by an ontological stance rooted in poststructuralist theory. In developing this approach, a number of empirical cases are included to illustrate its basic concepts and logics, ranging from the apartheid regime in South Africa to recent changes in higher education. The book will be a valuable tool for scholars and researchers in a variety of related fields of study in the social sciences, especially the disciplines of political science and political theory, international relations, social theory, cultural studies, anthropology and philosophy.

Logics of History

William H. Sewell Jr.
Logics of History Book PDF

Author : William H. Sewell Jr.
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 425 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2009-07-27
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780226749198

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Logics of History by William H. Sewell Jr. Pdf

While social scientists and historians have been exchanging ideas for a long time, they have never developed a proper dialogue about social theory. William H. Sewell Jr. observes that on questions of theory the communication has been mostly one way: from social science to history. Logics of History argues that both history and the social sciences have something crucial to offer each other. While historians do not think of themselves as theorists, they know something social scientists do not: how to think about the temporalities of social life. On the other hand, while social scientists’ treatments of temporality are usually clumsy, their theoretical sophistication and penchant for structural accounts of social life could offer much to historians. Renowned for his work at the crossroads of history, sociology, political science, and anthropology, Sewell argues that only by combining a more sophisticated understanding of historical time with a concern for larger theoretical questions can a satisfying social theory emerge. In Logics of History, he reveals the shape such an engagement could take, some of the topics it could illuminate, and how it might affect both sides of the disciplinary divide.

Social Theory, Psychoanalysis and Racism

Simon Clarke
Social Theory Psychoanalysis and Racism Book PDF

Author : Simon Clarke
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 198 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2017-03-04
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9781137099570

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Social Theory, Psychoanalysis and Racism by Simon Clarke Pdf

Sociological explanations of racism tend to concentrate on the structures and dynamics of modern life that facilitate discrimination and hierarchies of inequality. In doing so, they often fail to address why racial hatred arises (as opposed to how it arises) as well as to explain why it can be so visceral and explosive in character. Bringing together sociological perspectives with psychoanalytic concepts and tools, this text offers a clear, accessible and thought-provoking synthesis of varieties of theory, with the aim of clarifying the complex character of racism, discrimination and social exclusion in the contemporary world.

Forms of Explanation

Alan Garfinkel
Forms of Explanation Book PDF

Author : Alan Garfinkel
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 186 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 1981
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0300049021

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Forms of Explanation by Alan Garfinkel Pdf

What makes one explanation better than another? How can we tell when an explanation has really answered our question? In a lively and readable discussion, Garfinkel argues that the key to understanding an explanation is to discover what question is really being answered. He then suggests criteria for a good explanation and goes on to examine some classic explanations in social and natural science.

Constructing Social Theories

Arthur L. Stinchcombe
Constructing Social Theories Book PDF

Author : Arthur L. Stinchcombe
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 1987-07-15
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780226774848

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Constructing Social Theories by Arthur L. Stinchcombe Pdf

Constructing Social Theories presents to the reader a range of strategies for constructing theories, and in a clear, rigorous, and imaginative manner, illustrates how they can be applied. Arthur L. Stinchcombe argues that theories should not be invented in the abstract—or applied a priori to a problem—but should be dictated by the nature of the data to be explained. This work was awarded the Sorokin prize by the American Sociological Association as the book that made an outstanding contribution to the progress of sociology in 1970.

Social Mechanisms

Peter Hedström,Richard Swedberg
Social Mechanisms Book PDF

Author : Peter Hedström,Richard Swedberg
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 356 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 1998-01-13
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0521596874

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Social Mechanisms by Peter Hedström,Richard Swedberg Pdf

The advancement of social theory requires an analytical approach that systematically seeks to explicate the social mechanisms that generate and explain observed associations between events. These essays, written by prominent social scientists, advance criticisms of current trends in social theory and suggest alternative approaches. The mechanism approach calls attention to an intermediary level of analysis in between pure description and story-telling, on the one hand, and grand theorizing and universal social laws, on the other. For social theory to be of use for the working social scientist, it must attain a high level of precision and provide a toolbox from which middle range theories can be constructed.

Theory and Educational Research

Jean Anyon
Theory and Educational Research Book PDF

Author : Jean Anyon
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 349 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2008-08-18
Category : Education
ISBN : 9781135854430

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Theory and Educational Research by Jean Anyon Pdf

Most empirical researchers avoid the use of theory in their studies, providing data but little or no social explanation. Theoreticians, on the other hand, rarely test their ideas with empirical projects. As this groundbreaking volume makes clear, however, neither data nor theory alone is adequate to the task of social explanation—rather they form and inform each other as the inquiry process unfolds. Theory and Educational Research bridges the age-old theory/research divide by demonstrating how researchers can use critical social theory to determine appropriate empirical research strategies, and extend the analytical, critical – and sometimes emancipatory – power of data gathering and interpretation. Each chapter models a theoretically informed empiricism that places the data research yields in constant conversation with theoretical arsenals of powerful concepts. Personal reflections following each chapter chronicle the contributors’ trajectories of struggle and triumph utilizing theory and its powers in research. In the end this rich collection teaches education scholars how to deliberately engage with critical social theory in research to produce work that is simultaneously theoretically inspired, politically engaged, and empirically evocative.