Political sociology and social movements - bridging disciplinary by going meta
8 important questions on Political sociology and social movements - bridging disciplinary by going meta
What is the difference between sociology and political science?
What are the differences between middle-range theories, ground theories and meta-theories?
- ground theories -> wants to explain everything and is convinced that we can solve any question
- meta theories -> are at a very high level. It does the explaining and is about what we should put in our theories
What is the covering law account, that was very popular for theorizing in the social sciences?
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What are features of the covering law account?
- internal consistency of explanations can be evaluated by logic
- explananda can serve as hypotheses for empirical tests
- it is built on a logical argument
What is some critique about the covering law account?
- the account remains at the level of constant conjunctions -> no real answer to the why
- it is not able to deal with the asymmetry of causal relations
What is a mechanism, which can also function as an alternative to the covering law account?
- shows the structure of the causal approach
- shows the logical connection between X and Y
- is an answer to a why-question
How do weak versions, like structural individualism and the analytical view of mechanisms, treat social phenomena?
- both endogenous as exogenous -> unintended consequences or action shaped by a pre-existing social context
What is Coleman's bathtub/boat?
- situational mechanisms
- action-foundation mechanisms
- transformational mechanisms
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