{"product_id":"the-politics-of-method-in-the-human-sciences-9780822335061","title":"The Politics of Method in the Human Sciences","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eThe Politics of Method in the Human Sciences\u003c\/i\u003e provides a remarkable comparative assessment of the variations of positivism and alternative epistemologies in the contemporary human sciences. Often declared obsolete, positivism is alive and well in a number of the fields; in others, its influence is significantly diminished. The essays in this collection investigate its mutations in form and degree across the social science disciplines. Looking at methodological assumptions field by field, individual essays address anthropology, area studies, economics, history, the philosophy of science, political science and political theory, and sociology. Essayists trace disciplinary developments through the long twentieth century, focusing on the decades since World War II. \u003cp\u003eContributors explore and contrast some of the major alternatives to positivist epistemologies, including Marxism, psychoanalysis, poststructuralism, narrative theory, and actor-network theory. Almost all the ess\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“By contrasting the diverse trajectories and strategies of positivist method within each discipline, \u003ci\u003eThe Politics of Method in the Human Sciences \u003c\/i\u003edevelops a comparative perspective which has been lacking in virtually all prior treatments of positivism in social science. The contrasts in the form and prestige that positivist method assumed in each discipline are striking.”—Craig Calhoun, President of the Social Science Research Council\u003cbr\u003e“George Steinmetz and his colleagues present provocative perspectives on the politics of knowledge in the human sciences. Magisterial overviews jostle with unsettling manifestos in this comprehensive and challenging collection. \u003ci\u003eThe Politics of Method in the Human Sciences\u003c\/i\u003e is a necessary prolegomenon to any future epistemological debate.” —John Lie, Class of 1959 Professor and Dean of International and Area Studies, University of California, Berkeley\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments ix\u003cbr\u003e Introduction: Positivism and Its Others in the Social Sciences \/ George Steinmetz 1\u003cbr\u003e Part One. Positivism and Nonpositivism in Twentieth-Century Social Science Anthropology \u003cbr\u003e Estrangement, Intimacy, and the Objects of Anthropology \/ Webb Keane 59\u003cbr\u003e Area Studies\/Asian Studies \u003cbr\u003e The Trick of Words: Asian Studies, Translation, and the Problems of Knowledge \/ Michael Dutton 89\u003cbr\u003e Economics \u003cbr\u003e Economists and the Economy in the Twentieth Century \/ Timothy Mitchell 126\u003cbr\u003e Economics\/Philosophy of Science \u003cbr\u003e How Positivism Made a Pact with the Postwar Social Sciences in the United States \/ Philip Mirowski 142\u003cbr\u003e History \u003cbr\u003e The Political Unconscious of Social and Cultural History, or, Confessions of a Former Quantitative Historian \/ William H. Sewell Jr. 173\u003cbr\u003e Political Science\/Political Theory \u003cbr\u003e Defining “Theory” in Postwar Political Science \/ Emily Hauptmann 207\u003cbr\u003e Sociology and Economics \u003cbr\u003e Beware Trojan Horses Bearing Social Capital: How Privatization Turned \u003ci\u003eSolidarity\u003c\/i\u003e into a Bowling Team \/ Margaret R. Somers 233\u003cbr\u003e Sociology \u003cbr\u003e Scientific Authority and the Transition to Post-Fordism: The Plausibility of Positivism in U. S. Sociology since 1945 \/ George Steinmetz 275\u003cbr\u003e Part Two. Alternatives to Positivism in the Human Sciences \u003cbr\u003e Philosophy and Critical Realism \u003cbr\u003e Critical Realism \/ Andrew Collier 327\u003cbr\u003e Philosophy and Standpoint Theory \u003cbr\u003e Negotiating with a Positivist Legacy: New Social Justice Movements and a Standpoint Politics of Method \/ Sandra Harding 346\u003cbr\u003e Economics and Critical Realism \u003cbr\u003e A Perspective on Modern Economics \/ Tony Lawson 366\u003cbr\u003e Process and Temporality in Sociology \u003cbr\u003e The Idea of Outcome in U. S. Sociology \/ Andrew Abbott 393\u003cbr\u003e Psychoanalysis as Critique \u003cbr\u003e Psychoanalysis and the Theory of the Subject \/ Anthony Elliott 427\u003cbr\u003e Sociology of Science \u003cbr\u003e The Real and the Imaginary in Economic Methodology \/ Daniel Breslau 451\u003cbr\u003e Making Sense In and Of Political Science \u003cbr\u003e Facts, Values, and “Real” Numbers \/ Sophia Mihic, Stephen G. Engelmann, and Elizabeth Rose Wingrove 470\u003cbr\u003e Being Undisciplined \u003cbr\u003e On Your Marx: From Cultural History to the History of Society \/ Geoff Eley 496\u003cbr\u003e Conclusion: Provincializing the Social Sciences \/ Michael Burawoy 508\u003cbr\u003e References 527\u003cbr\u003e Contributors 583\u003cbr\u003e Index 587\u003cbr\u003e Citation Index 607\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"MD - Duke University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50577676697943,"sku":"9780822335061","price":100.8,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780822335061.jpg?v=1746096129","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-politics-of-method-in-the-human-sciences-9780822335061","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}