image: Anasazi petroglyphs at Newspaper Rock This calendar week marks the 9th anniversary of -- 1105 posts to date, or over 1.1 meg words....
image: Anasazi petroglyphs at Newspaper Rock
This calendar week marks the 9th anniversary of -- 1105 posts to date, or over 1.1 meg words. According to Blogger, over seven meg pageviews lead keep flowed across screens, tablets, in addition to phones since 2010.
The spider web log has been an ideal forum for me to croak on to prepare novel ideas virtually the social sciences, in addition to to reverberate upon novel contributions past times other talented observers in addition to practitioners of the social sciences. It is a cloth tape for me of the topics that lead keep been of involvement to me over time, similar points on a map outlining a driving trip through unfamiliar country. (The photograph higher upward was such a 2nd for me inward 1996.) Each entry describes a unmarried thought or insight; taken together, they compose a suggestive map of intellectual evolution in addition to discovery. During the yr I've gotten interested inward topics equally various equally the early on move of John von Neumann on computing (link, link), Reinhart Koselleck's approach to the philosophy of history (link), quantum computing (link, link), China's evolution policies (link), in addition to cephalopod philosophy (link). I've continued to tumble out merely about familiar topics -- generativity, reduction, in addition to emergence; grapheme in addition to plans of life; causal mechanisms; in addition to critical realism.
It is interesting to encounter what posts lead keep been the most pop over the past times 6 years (the catamenia for which Blogger provides data):
Key topics inward the foundations of the social sciences appear on the listing -- structure, power, pragmatism, poverty, mobility. But several novel topics brand the move past times 10 equally good -- supervenience, assemblage theory, in addition to hate. "What is a social structure?" was written during the firstly calendar month of the blog. The move past times cardinal words inward searches are "social structure" in addition to "social mobility".
Some of the philosophical ideas explored inward the spider web log lead keep crossed over into to a greater extent than traditional forms of academic publishing, including particularly the appearance of New Directions inward the Philosophy of Social Science before this fall. (Here is a site I've created to invite give-and-take of the book; link.) This mass bears out my master promise that could larn a "web-based dynamic monograph", amongst its ain cumulative logic over time. In framing New Directions it was possible for me to impose a to a greater extent than linear logic in addition to organization on the cardinal ideas -- for example, actor-based sociology, generativity, causal mechanisms, social ontology. As I conceived of it inward the beginning, the spider web log has proven to live a move of open-source philosophy.
H5N1 recurring insight inward the spider web log is the basic fact of heterogeneity in addition to contingency inward the social world. One of the hard challenges for the social sciences is the fact that social alter is to a greater extent than rapid in addition to to a greater extent than heterogeneous than nosotros desire to think. The founders of sociology, economics, in addition to political scientific discipline wanted to larn inward at theories that would permit us to empathize social processes inward a fairly elementary in addition to uniform way. But the sense of the social the world -- whether today inward the twenty-first century or inward the middle of the nineteenth century -- is that alter is heterogeneous, contingent, in addition to diverse. So the social sciences bespeak to approach the written report of the social the world differently from the neo-positivist epitome of "theory => explanation => confirmation". We bespeak a meta-theory of social query that is to a greater extent than attentive to granularity, contingency, in addition to heterogeneity -- fifty-fifty equally nosotros seek for unifying mechanisms in addition to patterns. (The really firstly post service inward was on the theme of the plasticity of things inward the social world.)
H5N1 novel theme inward the past times yr is the politics of hate. The emergence of racism, misogyny, in addition to religious bigotry inward the presidential crusade has made me desire to empathize amend the social dynamics of loathe -- inward the U.S.A. of America in addition to inward the residuum of the world. So an extended serial of posts lead keep focused on this theme inward the past times 6 months or then (link). This is a house where theory, philosophy, in addition to social reality intersect: it is intellectually of import to empathize how hate-based movements proliferate, but it is equally good enormously of import for us equally a culture to empathize in addition to neutralize these dynamics.
So thank yous for reading in addition to visiting ! I know that without the spider web log my intellectual life would live a lot less interesting in addition to a lot less creative. I am really appreciative of the many thoughtful visitors who read in addition to comment on the spider web log from fourth dimension to time, in addition to I'm looking frontwards to discovering what the coming yr volition bring.
(Mark Carrigan's Social Media for Academics is a really interesting in addition to electrical flow give-and-take of how social media in addition to blogging lead keep made a powerful touching on on sociology. Thanks, Mark, for including inward your work!)
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