Read more
List of contents
Introduction. The Micro-Sociological Challenge of Macro-Sociology: Towards a Reconstruction of Social Theory and Methodology K. Knorr-Cetina. Part 1. The Micro-Foundations of Social Knowledge 1. Notes on the Integration of Micro- and Macro-levels of Analysis A.V. Cicourel 2. Micro-translation as a Theory-Building Strategy R. Collins 3. Intermediate Steps between Micro- and Macro-Integration: the Case of Screening for Inherited Disorders T. Duster Part 2. Action and Structure: The Cognitive Organization of Symbolic Practice 4. Philosophical Aspects of the Micro-Macro Problem R. Harré 5. Agency, Institution and Time-Space Analysis A. Giddens 6. Social Ritual and Relative Truth in Natural Language G. Fauconnier Part 3. Toward a Reconstruction of Systems Perspectives 7. Transformational Theory and the Internal Environment of Action Systems V. Lidz 8. Communication about Law in Interaction Systems N. Luhmann Part 4. The Production of Societal Macro-Structures: Aspects of a Political Economy of Practice 9. Toward a Reconstruction of Historical Materialism J. Habermas 10. Unscrewing the Big Leviathan: How Actors Macro-Structure Reality and How Sociologists Help Them to Do So M. Callon and B. Latour 11. Men and Machines P. Bourdieu
Summary
After a period in which sociology was torn apart by the polarized claims of micro- and macro-methodology, an increasing number of sociologists are now attempting a fusion of the two approaches. In this volume, some of the most distinguished sociologists set out possible resolutions of the debate.
