Download or read book Social Theory as Science Routledge Revivals written by Russell Keat and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2011-01-31 with total page 531 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, written by a philosopher interested in the problems of social science and scientific method, and a sociologist interested in the philosophy of science, presents a novel conception of how we should think about and carry out the scientific study of social life. This book combines an evaluation of different conceptions of the nature of science with an examination of important sociological theorists and frameworks. This second edition of the work was originally published in 1982.
Download or read book Social Theory as Science written by Russell Keat and published by Routledge & Kegan Paul Books. This book was released on 1975 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Scientific Knowledge and Sociological Theory written by Barry Barnes and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-04-15 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1974.
Download or read book Social Theory as Science Routledge Revivals written by Russell Keat and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2011-01-31 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, written by a philosopher interested in the problems of social science and scientific method, and a sociologist interested in the philosophy of science, presents a novel conception of how we should think about and carry out the scientific study of social life. This book combines an evaluation of different conceptions of the nature of science with an examination of important sociological theorists and frameworks. This second edition of the work was originally published in 1982.
Download or read book The Science of Society written by Stephen F. Cotgrove and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Logics of History written by William H. Sewell Jr. and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-07-27 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Introduction to the Social Sciences RLE Social Theory written by Maurice Duverger and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-09-10 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Professor Duverger at last provides the student with an overall view of the methodology of the social sciences. He briefly traces the origin of the notion of a social science, showing how it emerged from social philosophy. Its essential elements and pre-conditions are described; the splintering of social science into specialist disciplines is explained, and the need for a general sociology confirmed. The techniques of observation used by social scientists are dealt with in some detail and the unity of the social sciences is illustrated by examples of the universal application of these techniques. Documentary evidence in its various forms are described along with the basic analytical techniques, including quantitative methods and content analysis. Other methods of gathering information through polls, interviews, attitude scales and participant observation are all described. Professor Duverger brings together the different kinds of analysis used to assess the information thus gathered. Arguing that observing and theorizing are not two different stages or levels of research, he examines the practical value and difficulties of general sociological theories, partial theories and models and working hypotheses. He both describes and assesses the limitations of experiment and the scope of comparative methods in the social sciences. He then gives elementary instructions for using and assessing the value of mathematical techniques. The possibilities of presenting social phenomena through graphs and charts are also explored. There are useful book lists and diagrams.
Download or read book Social Theory written by Carsten Bagge Laustsen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-03-27 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This textbook offers a new approach to understanding social theory. Framed around paired theoretical perspectives on a series of sociological problems, the book shows how distinctive viewpoints shed light on different facets of social phenomena. The book includes sociology’s "founding fathers", major 20th-century thinkers and recent voices such as Butler and Zizek. Philosophically grounded and focused on interpretation and analysis, the book provides a clear understanding of theory’s scope while developing students’ skills in evaluating, applying and comparing theories.
Download or read book A History and Theory of the Social Sciences written by Peter Wagner and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2001-07-17 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Divided into two parts, this book examines the train of social theory from the 19th century, through to the ′organization of modernity′, in relation to ideas of social planning, and as contributors to the ′rationalistic revolution′ of the ′golden age′ of capitalism in the 1950s and 60s. Part two examines key concepts in the social sciences. It begins with some of the broadest concepts used by social scientists: choice, decision, action and institution and moves on to examine the ′collectivist alternative′: the concepts of society, culture and polity, which are often dismissed as untenable by postmodernists today. This is a major contribution to contemporary social theory and provides a host of essential insights into the task of social science today.
Download or read book The Rise of Social Theory written by Johan Heilbron and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Rise of Social Theory offers a brilliant account of the origins of social theory and sociology, providing a vivid portrayal of intellectual culture between the Enlightenment and the age of Romanticism. It is a methodologically innovative work that combines social and intellectual history to examine changes in the social sciences, alone with the conditions under which these changes occurred.
Download or read book Social Theory Now written by Claudio E. Benzecry and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-08-14 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The landscape of social theory has changed significantly over the three decades since the publication of Anthony Giddens and Jonathan Turner’s seminal Social Theory Today. Sociologists in the twenty-first century desperately need a new agenda centered around central questions of social theory. In Social Theory Now, Claudio E. Benzecry, Monika Krause, and Isaac Ariail Reed set a new course for sociologists, bringing together contributions from the most distinctive?sociological?traditions?in an ambitious survey of where social theory is today and where it might be going. The book?provides a strategic window onto social theory based on current research, examining trends in classical traditions and the cutting edge of more recent approaches. From distinctive theoretical positions, contributors address questions about?how social order is accomplished; the role of materiality, practice, and meaning; as well as the conditions for the knowledge of the social world. The theoretical traditions presented include cultural sociology, microsociologies, world-system theory and post-colonial theory, gender and feminism, actor network and network theory, systems theory, field theory, rational choice, poststructuralism, pragmatism, and the sociology of conventions. Each chapter introduces a tradition and presents an agenda for further theoretical development. Social Theory Now is an essential tool for sociologists. It will be central to the discussion and teaching of contemporary social theory?for years to come.
Download or read book Brains Practices Relativism written by Stephen Turner and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2002-05 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Social Theory After Cognitive Science1. Throwing Out the Tacit Rule Book: Learning and Practices2. Searle's Social Reality3. Imitation or the Internalization of Norms: Is Twentieth-Century Social Theory Based on the Wrong Choice?4. Relativism as Explanation5. The Limits of Social Constructionism6. Making Normative Soup Out of Nonnormative Bones7. Teaching Subtlety of Thought: The Lessons of "Contextualism"8. Practice in Real Time9. The Significance of ShilsReferences Index Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
Download or read book Central Problems in Social Theory written by Anthony Giddens and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1979-11-29 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "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
Download or read book Social Mechanisms written by Peter Hedström and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998-01-13 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Understanding Social Theory written by Derek Layder and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2006 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides an introduction to the core issues in social theory. This book will be useful reading for students in sociology, social psychology, social theory, political theory and organization studies.
Download or read book The Art of Social Theory written by Richard Swedberg and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A practical guide to the art of theorizing in the social sciences In the social sciences today, students are taught theory by reading and analyzing the works of Karl Marx, Max Weber, and other foundational figures of the discipline. What they rarely learn, however, is how to actually theorize. The Art of Social Theory is a practical guide to doing just that. In this one-of-a-kind user's manual for social theorists, Richard Swedberg explains how theorizing occurs in what he calls the context of discovery, a process in which the researcher gathers preliminary data and thinks creatively about it using tools such as metaphor, analogy, and typology. He guides readers through each step of the theorist’s art, from observation and naming to concept formation and explanation. To theorize well, you also need a sound knowledge of existing social theory. Swedberg introduces readers to the most important theories and concepts, and discusses how to go about mastering them. If you can think, you can also learn to theorize. This book shows you how. Concise and accessible, The Art of Social Theory features helpful examples throughout, and also provides practical exercises that enable readers to learn through doing.
Download or read book The Rational and the Social RLE Social Theory written by James Robert Brown and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-08-21 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To paraphrase Marx, sociologists have only interpreted science; the point is to improve it. The Rational and the Social attempts both. It begins by sketching recent sociological approaches to science, notably the strong programme – Bloor’s ‘science of science’ and Barnes’s ‘finitism’ – and that of the ‘anthropologists in the lab’, Collins and Latour and Woolgar. The author argues that although sociological accounts are valuable in many respects, when morals are drawn about the structure and epistemology of science, they are badly flawed. In rejecting the sociological theory of science, it is not necessary to conclude that science develops without reference to the social. James Robert Brown argues for an alternative account. He proposes a novel way of viewing the history of science as a source of evidence for how to do good science and argues that the most important aspect of methodology is that it is comparative. Rival theories are evaluated by comparison and the contribution of the social to this process is inevitable and should be acknowledged. This is the challenge to science.
