Description
Book SynopsisBuilding on his earlier, influential contributions to contemporary debates on social theory, Professor Hedström argues for a systematic development of sociological theory so that it has the explanatory power and precision to inform sociological research and understanding, qualities lacking in much of the grand social theorizing currently fashionable.
Trade Review'… an enjoyabole and important addition to the meagre library of serious philosophy of social science. It gives pleaseure to read because it is clearly conceived and elegantly written, and because - contrary to the philosophical tradition - it is chock full of examples of current research. And Hedström's book is important because it emphasizes the thesis that to explain facts of a type is to exhibit or hypothesize the mechanisms that bring them about … Dissecting the Social is an exceptionally good work in a field characterized by fuzziness, ideological bias or remoteness from live sociology. For these resons, I hope that [the book] will become compulsory reading in advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on social theory, sociological method, and the philosophy of social science.' Mario Bunge, McGill University
Table of Contents1. The analytical tradition in sociology; 2. Social mechanisms and explanatory theory; 3. Action and interaction; 4. Social interaction and social change; 5. On causal modelling; 6. Quantitative research, agent-based modelling, and theories of the social (with Yvonne Åberg); 7. Coda; References.
