In an before post I made an travail at providing the beginnings of an inventory of social mechanisms from several areas of social research...
In an before post I made an travail at providing the beginnings of an inventory of social mechanisms from several areas of social research. Here I’d similar to locomote a petty farther amongst that thought inwards lodge to run across how it plays into goodness thinking close social-science methodology.
Some Types of Social Mechanisms CONTENTION Escalation Brokerage Diffusion Coordinated action Social appropriation Boundary activation Certification Framing Competition for power COLLECTIVE ACTION Prisoners' dilemma Free passenger behavior Convention Norms Selective benefits Selective coercion Conditional altruism Reciprocity ORGANIZATIONAL ENFORCEMENT Audit too accounting Supervision Employee training Morale building Leadership NORMS AND VALUES Altruistic enforcement Person-to-person transmission Imitation Subliminal transmission Erosion Charisma Stereotype threat | ECONOMIC ACTIVITY Market Auction Ministry direction Contract Market for lemons Democratic conclusion making Producers' control Soft budget constraint GOVERNMENT Agenda setting Cyclical voting Log rolling Regulatory organizations Influence peddling STATE REPRESSION Secret police describe files Informers Spectacular occupation of force Propaganda Deception Control of communications systems SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS Interpersonal network Broadcast Rumor Transport networks SYSTEM EFFECTS Flash trading Interlocking mobilization Overlapping systems of authorization (Brenner) Non-linear networks |
These mechanisms conduct keep been collected from a broad arrive at of social scientists too researchers -- Charles Tilly, Robert Axelrod, Elinor Ostrom, George Akerlof, Robert Bates, Mancur Olson, Mayer Zald, John Ferejohn, Janos Kornai, Claude Steele, too Charles Perrow, to mention a few.
There are at to the lowest degree 2 kinds of questions nosotros postulate to enquire close a collection similar this.
First, where practice the entries come upward from? What kinds of scientific enquiry are required inwards lodge to constitute that things similar these are indeed mechanisms found inwards the social world?
The most full general response to this inquiry concerning uncovering is that much research inwards the diverse disciplines of the social sciences is specifically directed at working out the contours of mechanisms similar these. Political scientists who focus on legislatures too the USA Congress conduct keep teach goodness on identifying too validating the institutional too voting mechanisms through which legislative outcomes come upward to effect. Organizational sociologists written report the inner workings of a arrive at of organizations too are able to position too validate a broad arrive at of mechanisms at piece of work inside these organizations. Economic anthropologists too theorists written report the ways inwards which economical transactions are conducted inwards a arrive at of human settings. Social psychologists position many of the ways that individuals teach normative beliefs too transmit them to other individuals. The greatest difficulty inwards constructing a tabular array similar this is non at the bird of identifying mechanisms that mightiness locomote included; it is the job of limiting the give away of mechanisms identified to a to a greater extent than or less manageable number. There is some argue to fright that social scientists conduct keep identified thousands of mechanisms inwards their research, non dozens.
And second, what piece of work does a tabular array similar this play inwards the deport of research inwards the social sciences?
In In Search of Mechanisms: Discoveries across the Life Sciences Craver too Darden debate that biologists oftentimes approach novel phenomena amongst something similar this tabular array inwards the backs of their heads -- an inventory of known causal mechanisms inwards the domain of biology. From in that place they endeavour to solve the puzzle: what combination of known mechanisms mightiness locomote concatenated inwards lodge to reproduce the observed phenomenon?
Strikingly enough, this description of a heuristic for arriving at an explanatory analysis of a province of affairs has a lot inwards mutual amongst the agency that McAdam, Tarrow, too Tilly locomote along inwards link.) MT&T debate that in that place is a relatively manageable listing of social mechanisms that tin locomote observed inwards many cases of social contention. And they approach novel instances amongst the thought that nosotros may locomote able to empathise the dynamics of the instance past times teasing out the workings of some of those mechanisms. It seems that MT&T are involved inwards both parts of the enquiry -- uncovering too isolation of recurring mechanisms of contention, too application of these discoveries to the explanation of specific episodes of contention.
For example, they innovate their instance studies inwards Part III of the majority inwards these terms:
Part III of the written report takes upward iii distinct literatures regarding argument -- revolution, nationalism, too democratization -- inwards persuasion of the paths our bespeak has followed. The destination of that final department is to emphasize the commonalities every bit good every bit the differences inwards those forms of argument through an exam of the explanatory mechanisms too political processes nosotros conduct keep uncovered inwards Parts I too II. (kl 511)And a few paragraphs later:
Let us insist: Our aim is non to build full general models of revolution, democratization, or social movements, much less of all political argument whenever too wherever it occurs. On the contrary, nosotros aim to position crucial causal mechanisms that recur inwards a broad multifariousness of contention, exactly make dissimilar aggregate outcomes depending on the initial conditions, combinations, too sequences inwards which they occur. (kl 519)Here is how they summarize their endeavour to explicate item episodes of social contention. They focus on a "number of loosely connected mechanisms too processes":
- A mobilization procedure triggered past times environmental changes too that consists of a combination of attribution of opportunities too threats, social appropriation, structure of frames, situations, identities, too innovative collective action.
- A position unit of measurement of mechanisms notwithstanding to locomote elucidated unopen to the processes of piece of work musician too identity constitution too the actions that constitute them.
- A laid upward of mechanisms oftentimes found inwards trajectories of argument that recurs inwards protracted episodes of contention, competition, diffusion, repression, too radicalization. (kl 941)
This seems to parallel fairly closely the intellectual procedure that Craver too Darden depict inwards the instance of biology: practice an inventory of mutual causal mechanisms too analyze novel cases past times trying to run across to what extent some of those known mechanisms tin locomote discerned inwards the novel material.
This job concern human relationship of an of import type of social scientific discipline research resonates good amongst a broad arrive at of social scientific discipline disciplines. It aligns amongst Robert Merton's notion of "theories of the middle range" inwards the social sciences, too the thought of developing a toolbox of patterns of social conduct on the solid soil of which to explicate specific episodes. Rather than looking for full general theories on the solid soil of which to unify broad swaths of the social solid soil nether a deductive explanatory system, this mechanisms-based approach suggests coming at social explanation piecemeal: finding the components too sub-processes of observed social ensembles, on the solid soil of which nosotros tin explicate some aspects of the conduct of those ensembles.
We mightiness usefully consider 2 additional questions. First, is in that place a theoretically useful agency of classifying social mechanisms (formation of the private actor, collective action, communication, repression, collective conclusion making, ...)? Can our catalogue render content-relevant "chapters"? We mightiness debate that a goodness taxonomy of social mechanisms genuinely provides a agency of theorizing the original dimensions of social activity too organization. And second, are in that place to a greater extent than cardinal things nosotros tin state close how some or many of these mechanisms work? Does a goodness theory of the piece of work musician too a goodness theory of social organizations suffice to job concern human relationship for the workings of a smashing many of these mechanisms? If nosotros respond affirmatively to this question, too then in i trial once to a greater extent than nosotros may conduct keep made a pocket-sized marker of progress towards offering a somewhat to a greater extent than full general theory of the social world.
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