Social Mechanisms

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Social Mechanisms

Author : Peter Hedström,Richard Swedberg
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 356 pages
File Size : 42,7 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.

Analytical Sociology and Social Mechanisms

Author : Pierre Demeulenaere
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 331 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2011-03-24
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781139497961

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Analytical Sociology and Social Mechanisms by Pierre Demeulenaere Pdf

Mechanisms are very much a part of social life. For example, we can see that inequality has tended to increase over time, and that cities can become segregated. But how do such mechanisms work? Analytical sociology is an influential approach to sociology which holds that explanations of social phenomena should focus on the social mechanisms that bring them about. This book evaluates the major features of this approach, focusing on the significance of the notion of mechanism. Leading scholars seek to answer a number of questions in order to explore all the relevant dimensions of mechanism-based explanations in social sciences. How do social mechanisms link together individual actions and social environments? What is the role of multi-agent modelling in the conceptualization of mechanisms? Does the notion of mechanism solve the problem of relevance in social sciences explanations?

Generative Mechanisms Transforming the Social Order

Author : Margaret S. Archer
Publisher : Springer
Page : 250 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2015-02-18
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9783319137735

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Generative Mechanisms Transforming the Social Order by Margaret S. Archer Pdf

This volume examines how generative mechanisms emerge in the social order and their consequences. It does so in the light of finding answers to the general question posed in this book series: Will Late Modernity be replaced by a social formation that could be called Morphogenic Society? This volume clarifies what a ‘generative mechanism’ is, to achieve a better understanding of their social origins, and to delineate in what way such mechanisms exert effects within a current social formation, either stabilizing it or leading to changes potentially replacing it . The book explores questions about conjuncture, convergence and countervailing effects of morphogenetic mechanisms in order to assess their impact. Simultaneously, it looks at how products of positive feedback intertwine with the results of (morphostatic) negative feedback. This process also requires clarification, especially about the conditions under which morphostasis prevails over morphogenesis and vice versa. It raises the issue as to whether their co-existence can be other than short-lived. The volume addresses whether or not there also is a process of ‘morpho-necrosis’, i.e. the ultimate demise of certain morphostatic mechanisms, such that they cannot ‘recover’. The book concludes that not only are generative mechanisms required to explain associations between variables involved in the replacement of Late Modernity by Morphogenic Society, but they are also robust enough to account for cases and times when such variables show no significant correlations.

Causal Mechanisms in the Global Development of Social Policies

Author : Johanna Kuhlmann,Frank Nullmeier
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 462 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2022
Category : Economic development
ISBN : 9783030910884

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Causal Mechanisms in the Global Development of Social Policies by Johanna Kuhlmann,Frank Nullmeier Pdf

This open access edited volume introduces the concept of causal mechanisms to explore new ways of explaining the global dynamics of social policy, and shows that a mechanism-based approach provides several advantages over established approaches for studying social policy. The introductory chapter outlines the mechanism-based approach, which stands out by modularisation and a clear focus on actors. The mechanism-based approach then guides the twelve chapters on social policy developments in different Asian, African, European and Latin American countries. Based on these findings, the concluding chapter provides a structured compilation of causal mechanisms and outlines how a mechanism-based approach can further strengthen research on the global development of social policies, especially in a comparative perspective. The edited volume is highly relevant for social policy scholars from a variety of disciplines, as well as for scholars interested in strengthening explanation in the social sciences.

Mechanisms and the Contingency of Social Causality

Author : Alexei Anisin
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Page : 170 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2022-08-04
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781527586376

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Mechanisms and the Contingency of Social Causality by Alexei Anisin Pdf

Mechanisms are frequently brought up across the natural and social sciences as supplements to laws and empirical regularities. Recent decades have seen an explosion in mechanistic explanations in which philosophers of science, natural scientists, and social scientists have advocated, debated, and criticized the usage of mechanisms in their respective disciplines. As the intensity of these debates has increased, our understanding of the historical origin of mechanisms remains incomplete. Of the explanations that have been put forward, it has been argued that the roots of mechanisms are to be found in mechanical philosophy. This book demonstrates that an important set of factors have been overlooked in our understanding of the ontology of mechanisms. In shifting attention to a never-before-explored terrain in the etymological and semantic evolution of what arguably is the most commonly used scientific term, “the mechanism,” this text discovers that the origin of mechanisms is to be witnessed in ideas about social causality that arose within Ancient Greek tragedy and theater. It takes readers on a journey through socio-cultural settings and changes in Ancient Greece, early Christianity, the Roman Empire, and the Middle Ages, as well as the rise of science and modernity, and finishes in our current era of digital technology. As such, the book reveals how understandings of mechanisms have changed and evolved across time.

Linking Social and Ecological Systems

Author : Fikret Berkes,Carl Folke,Johan Colding
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 480 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2000-04-13
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0521785626

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Linking Social and Ecological Systems by Fikret Berkes,Carl Folke,Johan Colding Pdf

It is usually the case that scientists examine either ecological systems or social systems, yet the need for an interdisciplinary approach to the problems of environmental management and sustainable development is becoming increasingly obvious. Developed under the auspices of the Beijer Institute in Stockholm, this new book analyses social and ecological linkages in selected ecosystems using an international and interdisciplinary case study approach. The chapters provide detailed information on a variety of management practices for dealing with environmental change. Taken as a whole, the book will contribute to the greater understanding of essential social responses to changes in ecosystems, including the generation, accumulation and transmission of ecological knowledge, structure and dynamics of institutions, and the cultural values underlying these responses. A set of new (or rediscovered) principles for sustainable ecosystem management is also presented. Linking Social and Ecological Systems will be of value to natural and social scientists interested in sustainability.

Europe’s New Scientific Elite

Author : Barbara Hoenig
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 202 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2017-04-21
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781315446028

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Europe’s New Scientific Elite by Barbara Hoenig Pdf

Winner of the Harald Kaufmann Prize for Senior Researchers, 2018 This book examines the question of whether the process of European integration in research funding has led to new forms of oligarchization and elite formation in the European Research Area. Based on a study of the European Research Council (ERC), the author investigates profound structural change in the social organization of science, as the ERC intervenes in public science systems that, until now, have largely been organized at the national level. Against the background of an emerging new science policy, Europe’s New Scientific Elite explores the social mechanisms that generate, reproduce and modify existing dynamics of stratification and oligarchization in science, shedding light on the strong normative impact of the ERC’s funding on problem-choice in science, the cultural legitimacy and future vision of science, and the building of new research councils of national, European and global scope. A comparative, theory-driven investigation of European research funding, this book will appeal to social scientists with interests in the sociology of knowledge.

Mechanisms and Consciousness

Author : Marek Pokropski
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2021-11-29
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781000480733

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Mechanisms and Consciousness by Marek Pokropski Pdf

This book develops a new approach to naturalizing phenomenology. The author proposes to integrate phenomenology with the mechanistic framework that offers new methodological perspectives for studying complex mental phenomena such as consciousness. While mechanistic explanatory models are widely applied in cognitive science, their approach to describing subjective phenomena is limited. The author argues that phenomenology can fill this gap. He proposes two novel ways of integrating phenomenology and mechanism. First, he presents a new reading of phenomenological analyses as functional analyses. Such functional phenomenology delivers a functional sketch of a target system and provides constraints on the space of possible mechanisms. Second, he develops the neurophenomenological approach in the direction of dynamic modeling of experience. He shows that neurophenomenology can deliver dynamical constraints on mechanistic models and thus inform the search for an underlying mechanism. Mechanisms and Consciousness will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in phenomenology, philosophy of mind, and the cognitive sciences.

The Mechanisms of Institutional Conflict in the European Union

Author : Ludvig Norman
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 184 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2016-07-15
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781317332725

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The Mechanisms of Institutional Conflict in the European Union by Ludvig Norman Pdf

How institutional conflicts arise in international political orders and the conditions shaping the outcomes of such conflicts has become the object of considerable contemporary focus. This book considers the dynamics of institutional conflict and institutional change in international organizations, specifically focusing on the European Union, the most highly integrated international political order on the globe. In a world where political decision making increasingly takes place above the nation state level, it theorises the social mechanisms that lead to the point at which these tensions become explicit and the customary functioning of international political orders tips into outright conflict between different organizational entities. Taking a constructivist approach, it examines two in-depth case studies - in the field of Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) and the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) - to explain the dynamics of the processes that lead up to institutional conflicts and provide some explanation for their final outcomes. This text will be of key interest to fields of and European Integration, EU Politics and more broadly International Relations.

Living Conditions and Targeted Aiding Mechanisms of the Urban Underclass in China

Author : Zhu Li,Mao Feifei
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2019-06-26
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781351398930

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Living Conditions and Targeted Aiding Mechanisms of the Urban Underclass in China by Zhu Li,Mao Feifei Pdf

Based on the approaches of questionnaire and interview, this book studies the urban subalterns formed with a considerable scale in China since the 1990s. By investigating their living status in detail, it depicts the mental conditions, class consciousness, migration, living difficulties and dilemmas of the subaltern class. It’s worth noting that in addition to the group at the bottom of the economic pyramid, this book expands the definition of subaltern by including the deviant underclass. Then it examines the factors causing the living dilemmas and provides suggestions aiming to mitigate them from the perspective of social succor. In the last chapter, this book focuses on the theoretical discussions on subaltern studies. New concepts such as the deviant subaltern group and social vigilance are created, and new theories such as production and transmission mechanism of the subaltern group are put forward.

The Explanation of Crime

Author : Per-Olof H. Wikström,Robert J. Sampson
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 325 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2006-11-30
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781139460217

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The Explanation of Crime by Per-Olof H. Wikström,Robert J. Sampson Pdf

Integration of disciplines, theories and research orientations has assumed a central role in criminological discourse yet it remains difficult to identify any concrete discoveries or significant breakthroughs for which integration has been responsible. Concentrating on three key concepts: context, mechanisms, and development, this volume aims to advance integrated scientific knowledge on crime causation by bringing together different scholarly approaches. Through an analysis of the roles of behavioural contexts and individual differences in crime causation, The Explanation of Crime seeks to provide a unified and focused approach to the integration of knowledge. Chapter topics range from individual genetics to family environments and from ecological behaviour settings to the macro-level context of communities and social systems. This is a comprehensive treatment of the problem of crime causation that will appeal to graduate students and researchers in criminology and be of great interest to policy-makers and practitioners in crime policy and prevention.

Social Vulnerability in Europe

Author : Costanzo Ranci
Publisher : Springer
Page : 316 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2009-11-30
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780230245778

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Social Vulnerability in Europe by Costanzo Ranci Pdf

This book explores the dimensions and characteristics of social vulnerability in Western Europe. It provides a broad empirical foundation for recent theories on the emergence of new social risks in post-industrial societies, revealing to what extent social risks are compromising the 'normal' functioning of the European population.

Social Learning

Author : William Hoppitt,Kevin N. Laland
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 319 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2013-07-21
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780691150710

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Social Learning by William Hoppitt,Kevin N. Laland Pdf

Many animals, including humans, acquire valuable skills and knowledge by copying others. Scientists refer to this as social learning. It is one of the most exciting and rapidly developing areas of behavioral research and sits at the interface of many academic disciplines, including biology, experimental psychology, economics, and cognitive neuroscience. Social Learning provides a comprehensive, practical guide to the research methods of this important emerging field. William Hoppitt and Kevin Laland define the mechanisms thought to underlie social learning and demonstrate how to distinguish them experimentally in the laboratory. They present techniques for detecting and quantifying social learning in nature, including statistical modeling of the spatial distribution of behavior traits. They also describe the latest theory and empirical findings on social learning strategies, and introduce readers to mathematical methods and models used in the study of cultural evolution. This book is an indispensable tool for researchers and an essential primer for students. Provides a comprehensive, practical guide to social learning research Combines theoretical and empirical approaches Describes techniques for the laboratory and the field Covers social learning mechanisms and strategies, statistical modeling techniques for field data, mathematical modeling of cultural evolution, and more

Handbook of Mental Control

Author : Daniel M. Wegner,James W. Pennebaker
Publisher : Pearson
Page : 630 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 1993
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : UOM:39015046855048

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Handbook of Mental Control by Daniel M. Wegner,James W. Pennebaker Pdf

For the first time, this volume brings together the research and theories of psychologists whose work explores the processes and strategies that are involved when people attempt to control their own thoughts, moods, and behavior. It covers the multiple dimensions of mental control - its causes, consequences, and components, and draws on current research within social, personality, cognitive, developmental, and clinical psychology. For professionals in the field of behavior analysis.

Chasing Reality

Author : Mario Bunge
Publisher : University of Toronto Press
Page : 361 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2015-01-15
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781442621954

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Chasing Reality by Mario Bunge Pdf

Chasing Reality deals with the controversies over the reality of the external world. Distinguished philosopher Mario Bunge offers an extended defence of realism, a critique of various forms of contemporary anti-realism, and a sketch of his own version of realism, namely hylorealism. Bunge examines the main varieties of antirealism - Berkeley's, Hume's, and Kant's; positivism, phenomenology, and constructivism - and argues that all of these in fact hinder scientific research. Bunge's realist contention is that genuine explanations in the sciences appeal to causal laws and mechanisms that are not directly observable, rather than simply to empirical generalisations. Genuine science, in his view, is objective even when it deals with subjective phenomena such as feelings of fear. This work defends a realist view of universals, kinds, possibilities, and dispositions, while rejecting contemporary accounts of these that are couched in terms of modal logic and 'possible worlds.'