Abstract
The main message of this book is that the advancement of social theory calls for an analytical approach that systematically seeks to explicate the social mechanisms that generate and explain observed associations between events. It might appear obvious that every social theory, worthy of its name, should be explanatory. But upon closer examination, it turns out that what often goes under the rubric of social theory, should more properly be viewed as conceptual or sensitizing schemes, and not as explanatory theory proper.I Much of modern social theory has a tendency – just like the Parsonianism of yesterday – to label, relabel, and to describe rather than to explain. In the case of sociological theory, our main concern in this essay, a sustained focus on explanatory social mechanisms would allow sociological theory to reconnect with what we consider to be its most promising and productive era – namely, middle-range sociology of the kind that Robert Merton and Paul Lazarsfeld tried to develop at Columbia University after World War II.
Keywords
YesterdayRubricEpistemologySocial theorySociologyFocus (optics)Sociological theoryExplanatory modelSocial sciencePhilosophy
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Publication Info
- Year
- 1998
- Type
- book-chapter
- Pages
- 1-31
- Citations
- 728
- Access
- Closed
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Cite This
Peter Hedström,
Richard Swedberg
(1998).
Social mechanisms: An introductory essay.
Cambridge University Press eBooks
, 1-31.
https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511663901.001
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1017/cbo9780511663901.001