Frontiers of sociology

Frontiers of Sociology

Annals of the International

Institute of Sociology (IIS)

Since its foundation in 1893 the International Institute of Sociology (IIS) has played

an important and at times crucial role in the international world of social science.

The IIS was created as a forum for discussions among scholars whom we now think

of as classics of sociology and social science. Among its members and associates were

prominent scholars such as Franz Boas, Roger Bastide, Lujo Brentano, Theodor Geirger,

Gustave Le Bon, Karl Mannheim, William F. Ogburn, Pitirim Sorokin, Georg Simmel,

Werner Sombart, Ludwig Stein, Gabriel Tarde, Richard Thurnwald, Ferdinand Toen￾nies, Thorstein Veblen, Alfred Vierkandt, Lester F. Ward, Sidney Webb, Max Weber,

Leopold von Wiese and Florian Znaniecki. They shared a sense of urgency about social

conditions but also a conviction that systematic inquiry would make human beings

more able to grasp and overcome them. They also shared a belief that scholars from

different nations and different theoretical traditions can form an international com￾munity and engage in intellectual contestation and dialogue while remaining respectful

of each other’s diversity. This is refl ected in the publications of the Institute, the most

important one being the Annals. The fi rst volume of the Annals was published already

in 1895. In recent years the IIS has increasingly come to play a role analogous to that

of its early years. The congresses preceding the one in Stockholm in 2005 were held

in Beijing (2004), Krakow (2001), Tel Aviv (1999), Köln (1997), Trieste (1995), Paris

(1993), Kobe (1991) and Rome (1989). They have highlighted dilemmas of human

existence and societal institutions amidst processes of globalization, cooperation and

violent confl ict. They have done so in the spirit which guided the formation of the

IIS, namely that of an engagement and encounter between a variety of theoretical

positions among members of a truly international community of scholars.

The IIS Bureau 2005–2009

President

Björn Wittrock, Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, Uppsala

Former President

Eliezer Ben-Rafael, University of Tel Aviv

Vice Presidents

Ayse Caglar, Central European University, Budapest

Huang Ping, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing

Elke Koch-Weser Ammassari, University of Rome “La Sapienza”

Secretary-General/Treasurer

Peter Hedström, University of Oxford and Singapore Management University

Bureau Members

Alberto Gasparini, University of Trieste

Helga Nowotny, European Research Council (ERC), Vienna

Danièle Hervieu-Léger, Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), Paris

Karen Cook, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA

André Béteille, University of Delhi

Auditor

Masamichi Sasaki, Chuo University, Tokyo

Frontiers of Sociology

Edited by

Peter Hedström

Björn Wittrock

LEIDEN • BOSTON

2009

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Frontiers of sociology / edited by Peter Hedstrom, Bjorn Wittrock.

p. cm. — (Annals of the International Institute of Sociology ; 11)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-90-04-16569-4 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Sociology—Congresses. I.

Hedström, Peter. II. Wittrock, Björn. III. Institut international de sociologie. World

Congress (37th)

HM421.F76 2008

301—dc22

2008038910

ISSN 1568-1548

ISBN 978 90 04 16569 4

Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing,

IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,

mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission

from the publisher.

Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by

Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to

The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910,

Danvers, MA 01923, USA.

Fees are subject to change.

printed in the netherlands

CONTENTS

Introduction: Frontiers of Sociology .......................................... 1

Peter Hedström and Björn Wittrock

THE LEGACY AND FRONTIERS OF SOCIOLOGY

The Emergence of Universalism: An Affi rmative

Genealogy ............................................................................... 15

Hans Joas

The Social Sciences and the Two Relativisms .......................... 25

Raymond Boudon

The Return to Values in Recent Sociological Theory .............. 39

Piotr Sztompka

Sociology and Political Science: Learning and Challenges ....... 59

Jack A. Goldstone

Toward a New Comprehensive Social Science ......................... 67

Dietrich Rueschemeyer

SOCIOLOGY AND THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

History and Sociology: Transmutations of Historical

Reasoning in the Social Sciences ........................................... 77

Björn Wittrock

Axial Visions and Axial Civilizations: The Transformations of

World Histories between Evolutionary Tendencies and

Institutional Formations .......................................................... 113

S. N. Eisenstadt

Social “Mechanisms” and Comparative-Historical Sociology:

A Critical Realist Proposal ..................................................... 147

Philip Gorski

SOCIOLOGY AND THE ECONOMIC SCIENCES

Sociology and the Economic Sciences ....................................... 197

Neil J. Smelser

Formal Theory in the Social Sciences ....................................... 209

Richard Breen

Bourdieu’s Contribution to Economic Sociology ...................... 231

Richard Swedberg

SOCIOLOGY AND THE CULTURAL SCIENCES

Modernity as Experience and as Interpretation: Towards

Something Like a Cultural Turn in the Sociology of

“Modern Society” ................................................................... 247

Peter Wagner

Geocultural Scenarios ................................................................. 267

Ulf Hannerz

SOCIOLOGY AND THE COGNITIVE SCIENCES

The Social Stance and Its Relation to Intersubjectivity ............ 291

Peter Gärdenfors

Shared Beliefs about the Past: A Cognitive Sociology of

Intersubjective Memory .......................................................... 307

Jens Rydgren

The Analytical Turn in Sociology ............................................. 331

Peter Hedström

SOCIOLOGY AND THE MATHEMATICAL AND

STATISTICAL SCIENCES

We Always Know More Than We Can Say: Mathematical

Sociologists on Mathematical Sociology ................................ 345

Christofer Edling

Statistical Models and Mechanisms of Social Processes ........... 369

Aage B. Sørensen

Causal Inference and Statistical Models in Modern Social

Sciences ................................................................................... 401

Hans-Peter Blossfeld

Notes on Contributors ................................................................ 433

Author Index ............................................................................... 439

vi contents

INTRODUCTION: FRONTIERS OF SOCIOLOGY

Peter Hedström and Björn Wittrock

Since its foundation in 1893 the International Institute of Sociology (IIS)

has played an important and at times crucial role in the international

world of social science. The IIS was created as a forum for discussions

among scholars whom we now think of as classics of sociology and

social science. They shared a sense of urgency about social conditions

but also a conviction that systematic inquiry would make human beings

more able to grasp and overcome them. They also shared a belief that

scholars from different nations and different theoretical traditions can

form an international community and engage in intellectual contestation

and dialogue while remaining respectful of each other’s diversity.

In recent years the IIS has increasingly come to play a role analogous

to that of its early years. World Congresses of the IIS have highlighted

dilemmas of human existence and societal institutions amidst processes

of globalization, cooperation and violent confl ict. They have done so

in the spirit which guided the formation of the IIS, namely that of an

engagement and encounter between a variety of theoretical positions

among members of a truly international community of scholars.

There may be a greater urgency today than for a very long time

for sociology to examine its own intellectual and institutional frontiers

relative to other disciplinary and scholarly programs but also relative to

a rapidly changing institutional and academic landscape. In this sense,

current sociology may be in a situation more analogous to that of the

classics of sociology and of the IIS than has been the case for a large

part of the twentieth century.

The 37th World Congress of the IIS focused on theory and research

at the forefront of sociology and on the relationship between sociology

and its neighboring disciplines. This volume constitutes a sustained

effort by prominent sociologists and other social scientists to assess the

current standing of sociology. It is a stocktaking of the unique nature

of sociology in the light of advances within the discipline itself and

within a range of neighboring disciplines. Some of the chapters outline

institutional and professional strategies for sociology in the new millen￾nium. Others trace scholarly advances and propose ambitious research

2 peter hedström and björn wittrock

programs drawing on recent developments not only within traditional

neighboring disciplines such as history, political science, and economics,

but also within the cognitive, cultural and mathematical sciences.

A little more than half of the chapters of this book draw on texts

that were originally presented at the 37th World Congress. They have all

been subject to revision and rewriting. The other half is constituted by

texts that have been written specifi cally for the book. In one case—the

chapter by the late Harvard sociologist Aage B. Sørensen—there is a

previously unpublished text which has been graciously offered to the

editors by his widow, Professor Annemette Sørensen.

The volume is divided into six parts. The fi rst part, The Legacy and

Frontiers of Sociology, is constituted by a series of efforts to explore the

cognitive, cultural and institutional commitments of sociology. They

do so by way of an analysis of intellectual traditions in historical

context but also by arguments for sociological research programs that

encompass and expand core components of these traditions. Thus

Hans Joas brings out the relevance to contemporary sociology of the

legacies of two originally non-sociological traditions, namely those of

the predominantly German tradition of historicism and hermeneutics

and of the American tradition of pragmatism. He traces ways in

which these two traditions infl uenced classical sociology but also how

they may be related to each other in ways of the highest relevance to

contemporary sociology. In particular he outlines a sociological research

program for the study of what he calls “major innovations in the fi elds

of values” and in particular of “The Emergence of Universalism”. Such

an “affi rmative genealogy of moral universalism” will re-establish links

between sociology and moral philosophy that were taken for granted in

the period at the turn of the eighteenth century when modern social

science emerged but which became increasingly tenuous already in the

course of the nineteenth century. For any sociological analysis of any

issue related to human rights and violations of such rights, a research

program, which probes the frontiers of sociology, philosophy and his￾tory, seems indispensable.

Raymond Boudon explores the growth of two types of relativism,

which he calls cognitive and cultural, within the social sciences in the

course of the last thirty years. He traces their intellectual origins and

the particular constellations of conditions that contributed to their

rapid diffusion in the last decades of the twentieth century. Interestingly

enough Boudon then cautiously proceeds to subject these two types

of relativism to a sociological inquiry in the tradition of Durkheim.

introduction: frontiers of sociology 3

In consequence, he comes to probe, or perhaps rather expose, the

socially and constructed nature also of prevalent relativist assumptions

and concludes by arguing how these presuppositions may indeed be

transcended.

Joas and Boudon share an interest in the emergence and constitution

of values both in daily life and in research practices. Piotr Sztompka’s

chapter is explicitly devoted to an inquiry in the return of values in

sociological theorizing. He starts out by distinguishing two different views

on the role of values, namely as a source of bias and as a facilitator of

ideology. He then relates the role of values to different strands in cur￾rent sociology sharing an anti-naturalistic stance and emphasizing the

cultural, transformative, agential, refl exive nature of practices both at

a micro-processual and at a global level. They all help to underpin an

increasing emphasis on dialogue, on the constitution of meaning, on

the role of values in social practices and on contributions of sociology

to public debates, public actions, and ultimately to the way sociologists

may contribute to a higher degree of collective rationality. Although

different both in rhetorical style and in terms of theoretical tradition,

the argument of Sztompka is largely parallel and complementary to

that pursued by Boudon.

Whereas the focus of Joas, Boudon and Sztompka alike is on the

historical evolution and current viability and promise of different

intellectual traditions and of some key modes of sociological theoriz￾ing, the focus of the contributions by Jack Goldstone, and Dietrich

Rueschemeyer is a different one, namely on the formulation of insti￾tutional strategies for the future development of sociology. Goldstone

and Rueschemeyer have a similar view of the great potential and actual

contribution of sociology to a well-founded understanding of central

features of the contemporary world. Their prescriptions for the future

success of sociology are, however, radically different. Both of them

contrast the more open intellectual landscape of academic sociology to

the clearly demarcated and compartmentalized institutionalization of

disciplines such as economics and political science. Goldstone espouses

a strategy that would entail an ordering of the teaching and research

activities of sociology into four clearly demarcated subfi elds—sociology

of the nation, macro-sociology, micro-sociology, and organizational

sociology—in a mode reminiscent of that practiced within economics

(micro-economics, macro-economics, international economics, and eco￾nomic history) and political science (home country politics, comparative

politics, international relations, and political theory). Goldstone argues

4 peter hedström and björn wittrock

that this would constitute an important step towards further develop￾ment of sociology as a discipline and a profession and would make

the impressive range of achievements of sociology more visible also

to the public at large.

Rueschemeyer on the other hand argues that it is now time to over￾come the long-term development of social science into panoply of

different and diverging disciplines and specializations that have evolved

since the late nineteenth century when a comprehensive social science,

what we now call classical sociology, was fragmented into specialized

fi elds of sociology, political science and ethnology/anthropology. Soci￾ology as a discipline may still be more open to methodological and

theoretical explorations than, say, political science, but both disciplines

and others would profi t from closer collaboration and from a systematic

effort to strengthen macro-comparative research in the social sciences

at large and to make their impressive achievements more apparent also

to a wider audience.

A new comprehensive social science is however, Rueschemeyer argues,

not just a program but rather something that has already been partially

realized. This is clearly the case in the comparative study of revolutions

and democratization or the comparative study of welfare societies or

the study of economic transitions or the research program of institu￾tionalism. In all these areas of frontier research, sociologists, economists,

political scientists and scholars from organizational and cultural studies

are already cooperating in comparative empirical research on a vast

scale while exploring theoretical avenues at the frontier of their own

and neighboring disciplines. A new comprehensive social science faces

far less obstacles in intellectual terms than the corresponding program

at the turn of the nineteenth century when it was largely “pre-empted

by politics and simple ideological thrusts as was the case between 1914

and 1945”.

The renewal and growth of a comprehensive social science would

not replace but signifi cantly complement the different existing disciplines

and help bring out commonalities in their legacies and current orienta￾tions but also enhances further research advances beyond those which

have already been achieved. It would, perhaps most importantly, help

bring out the true potential of systematic research to an understand￾ing and overcoming of the current dilemmas of humankind which,

in Rueschemeyer’s words, are “fundamentally the old problems writ

large: extreme forms of poverty and inequality; coexistence of rich and

poor nations; weak and ineffective institutions related to growth and

introduction: frontiers of sociology 5

distribution; a growing disconnect between inherited cultural templates

and current developments; and, arising out of these, the chance of

brutal domestic and international confl icts”.

The second section, Sociology and the Historical Sciences, explores the

curious ambivalence that characterizes the relationship between sociol￾ogy and history. In a sense sociology and the social sciences at large

are intrinsically historical. They have tended to portray themselves as

part of an effort of human beings to achieve an understanding of the

contemporary historical epoch so as to be able to exert an infl uence on

its shape and development. At the same time, there has been a process

over the past two centuries that has resulted in a deep divide between

the social and historical sciences. In recent decades, however, there

have been a range of advances in the social sciences which have

brought history back into the core of social science. Björn Wittrock

provides a historical overview of some of the mechanisms behind

the emergence of a chasm between the social and historical sciences.

He also explores three key avenues in the contemporary renaissance

of historical reasoning in the social sciences. He argues that the full

potential of research on the emergence and development of macro￾societal institutions can only be realized if sociologists transcend

the limits of historical institutionalism and engage in a study of the

interplay between cultural crystallizations and the emergence of macro￾institutional trajectories.

The chapter by S. N. Eisenstadt is devoted precisely to one such

crucial period of cultural crystallization in the history of humankind,

namely the so-called Axial Age, i.e. the period in the middle of the fi rst

millennium BCE which saw the emergence in widely different forms in

cultures across Eurasia of cosmologies premised on a chasm between

a mundane and a transcendental sphere entailing new relationships

between rulers and subjects, between practices of interpretation and

domination, between inscription and interpretation, between orthodoxy

and heterodoxy. This period and its consequences for the emergence

of radically new forms of political order, of new universal religions,

and of an era in which, to paraphrase the German Egyptologist Jan

Assmann, Kings could no longer claim to be Gods, only to rule with a

Mandate of Heaven or by the Grace of God, i.e. on terms that entailed

the principled possibility for claims that the mandate had been forfeited,

that an interpretation bolstering established order was erroneous and

illegitimate, that orthodox interpretations and institutions could never

exorcise the possibility of heterodoxy and dissent.

6 peter hedström and björn wittrock

The discussion of the hypothesis of the Axial Age and about the

properties of the Axial civilizations, which emerged in the wake of it,

have been one of the most persistent and sustained intellectual debates

during the second half of the twentieth century with the most important

protagonist being fi rst Karl Jaspers and later Eisenstadt but with many

other contemporary participants and with a range of precursors includ￾ing both Max and Alfred Weber. The hypothesis of the Axial Age has

had profound implications for the historical and comparative study of

religious, cultural, social and political practices, and Eisenstadt’s chapter

brings out some of the most important dimensions of this, including

discussions of patrimonial and feudal arrangements, forms of Empires

and other political orders, as well as the nature of public spaces.

In the last decade interest in the hypothesis of the Axial Age and

Axial civilizations has become more intense and more wide-ranging

and is likely to play a crucial role in sociological discourse in the years

to come. It is a delight to be able to include a contribution by one of

the most signifi cant protagonists in this debate during the past half

century and more.

The chapter by Philip Gorski is written by a historical sociologist

whose work on the reformation and the comparative study of state

formations in early modern Europe immediately became a central refer￾ence point. In his contribution to this volume, Philip Gorski presents a

sophisticated and extensive argument for his vision, or rather his detailed

model, of how comparative-historical analysis should proceed in the

social sciences. It is an argument that takes its point of departure in an

overview of contemporary schools in the philosophy of science and in

a forceful argument in favour of so-called critical realism, i.e. the form

of anti-positivistic philosophy of science which has been developed by

Rom Harré and Roy Bhaskar but which includes a range of prominent

scholars in several fi elds, among them the sociologist Margaret Archer

to take but one example.

Central to this position is the argument that scientifi c work cannot

remain content with providing descriptions of various occurrences

on the level of what is empirically observable and then to hope that

empirical results will more or less automatically yield theoretical insights.

On the contrary science always makes assumptions about generating

mechanisms, which may not be directly observable themselves, but

which may be real none the less and have observable consequences.

Thus this position rejects both empiricism and an instrumentalist view

of scientifi c theories and emphasizes the need to understand and to

introduction: frontiers of sociology 7

theorize generating mechanisms. Philip Gorski does just that by way of

a detailed argument that starts from an examination of various uses of

the term mechanism. He then elaborates his proposal for a critical real￾ist program for a theory of causal mechanisms, the so-called ECPRES

model, where “e” stands for “emergent”, “cp” for “causal powers”,

“re” for “related entities”, and “s” for “system”. In the following step

Gorski confronts this model for comparative-historical sociology with

a range of rival theories that currently occupy a prominent role. The

focus is on two broad types of such rival theories, namely fi rstly rational

choice approaches, including those of Edgar Kiser, Michael Hechter,

Jon Elster and Peter Hedström’s version of a form of rational choice

based theory of social mechanisms, and secondly historical institutional

approaches, with special reference to the works of James Mahoney and

Charles Tilly.

The third section, Sociology and the Economic Sciences, explores the fron￾tier between sociology and economics. The chapter by Neil Smelser

considers the evolving relationship between economics and sociology,

starting with his and Talcott Parsons’ 1956 book Economy and Society to

the most recent developments in economic sociology and behavioral

and institutional economics. While the disciplinary boundaries in cer￾tain respects have diminished over time, fundamental methodological

differences remain intact suggesting that a theoretical synthesis is not

likely to happen in many years to come.

These methodological differences between economics and sociology

also are discussed in Richard Breen’s chapter. He considers rational￾choice theory in the broader context of formal theory and distinguishes

between “thin” and “thick” versions of rational choice theory. The

use of a thin version of rational-choice theory has the advantage of

producing clear and precise explanations of social outcomes but they

raise diffi cult and important questions about the explanatory status of

theories which are founded upon knowingly false assumptions. Breen

argues for the importance of closer links between empirical research

and formal theory and sees agent-based modeling as an important new

addition to the sociologist’s theoretical toolbox.

Richard Swedberg explores the importance of Pierre Bourdieu’s

work for economic sociology. He focuses on Bourdieu’s early studies

of Algeria, his attempt to bring a normative dimension into the discus￾sion of economic sociology, and his attempt to develop a sociological

notion of interests. Swedberg argues that Bourdieu’s combined focus

on interests and relations and his use of subjective data on individuals’

8 peter hedström and björn wittrock

states of mind in his analyses of economic phenomena are likely to

contribute to re-vitalizing the intellectual dialogue between sociology

and economics.

In the fourth section, Sociology and the Cultural Sciences, Peter Wagner

starts out by pointing to the limitations of a purely institutional analysis

of “modern societies”. He then goes on to highlight how sociology

has in fact already largely achieved, to paraphrase his subtitle, “some￾thing like a cultural turn in the sociology of ‘modern society’”. Going

beyond a purely institutional analysis also means rejecting the way in

which sociology for a long time, from Weber through Giddens, has

tended to focus on the unique experience of Europe and more broadly

“Western civilization”. Instead Wagner articulates an understanding of

modernity as an interpretive relation to the world that involves “a range

of problematiques to which a variety of responses are possible”. The

starting point must be the unique nature of a variety of situations in

time and space and the cultural resources available in these situations.

It is only in such a perspective that it becomes meaningful to explore

wider issues of comparative historical sociology and anthropology. In

this sense there can be no meaningful sociology at all which does not

take the achievements of the cultural and philosophical sciences in

recent decades seriously.

Ulf Hannerz’s contribution is an exploration of relationships between

sociology and the cultural sciences at large but also of a variety of

imaginations of geocultural and geopolitical borders and fl ows. In

particular he dissects waves of world scenarios and how current imagi￾nations of cultural fl ows and infl uences relate to each other but also to

classical sociology and anthropology which he argues is characterized

by an emphasis precisely on “the interfl ow of cultural material between

civilizations” to quote Alfred Kroeber. Thus today’s theorizing of deter￾ritorialization, virtuality, hybridity and creolization may be more at odds

with contemporary imaginations in the social and political studies about

homogeneous movements whether of modernization or civilizations

than with the classical heritage of sociology and anthropology.

In this vein Hannerz also explores the possibilities for a transnational

consciousness in a world not only of print capitalism but of media

sound-bites and a variety of hybrid genres. His analysis, as always in

his works, carefully couched and elegantly argued, provides the poten￾tial for a geocultural imagination where divisions between centres and

peripheries and between dominating powers and subalterns are not

able to resist a global conversation and a talking back and dialogue