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The Whole Is Greater Than The Sum Of Its Parts
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Barlow, Dennis |
| Copyright Year | 1999 |
| Abstract | Commenting on The Oxford Handbook of Analytical Sociology (hereafter, The Handbook), edited by Peter Hedström and Peter Bearman, is a difficult task. The monumental size of the book—30 chapters written by 38 different scholars—makes it hard to provide an overview which would be at the same time deep and synthetic. In addition, the book is clearly the latest instance of a complex intellectual movement whose principles have been coded for almost a decade, first, by Hedström and Swedberg (1998) and, then, by Hedström (2005). As a consequence, a sound review of The Handbook should also assess the extent to which some progress has been made over this period of time. In order to reach an acceptable balance among these three requirements, I decided to review The Handbook by themes rather than by chapters. In particular, instead of linearly following their succession across the four parts composing the volume—‘Foundations’ (Chapters 1–2), ‘Social cogs and wheels’ (Chapters 3–10), ‘Social dynamics’ (Chapters 11–25), and ‘Perspectives from other fields and approaches’ (Chapters 26–30)—I will use the chapters to discuss some major theoretical and methodological issues that lie at the heart of the current debate about analytical sociology. Criticisms of this approach guided me in the selection of the issues, which mainly refer to the mechanism concept, the theory of action, and agent-based modeling. Behind the apparent heterogeneity of the chapters, The Handbook coherently addresses these fundamental points and shows that analytical sociology is progressively refining both its theoretical premises and methodological tools. |
| Starting Page | 22 |
| Ending Page | 22 |
| Page Count | 1 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Volume Number | 3 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1869&context=cisr-journal&httpsredir=1&referer= |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://www.gemass.org/manzo/sites/default/files/on_analytical_sociology_eur_sociol_rev-2011-manzo-829-835.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
