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Critiques the paper "Decentering Sociology: Synthetic Dyes and Social Theory" by Andrew Pickering, published in this same issue of "Perspectives on Science." Exploration of what readers learn about technoscience from Pickering's account; Extent to which a decentered sociology differs from others in science studies; Reason why historians are likely to have problems in using this approach to write history.

The article analyzes the Amherst papers in relation to development of Parsons' theory. A careful analysis of the Amherst papers reveals that the basic ideas and philosophical principles that Parsons followed throughout his life were already in place, some more fully developed than others, yet forming an integrally coherent pattern to a surprising degree. The clear existence in Parsons's Amherst papers of a metatheoretical framework predating his later professional writing calls into question some still existing myths about radical breaks in the development of Parsons's theory. In one version of this mythology, Parsons began his theory as a voluntarist, then became a structural-functionalist, later moved on to become a systems-theorist and ended up as a social evolutionist. Despite such claims, Parsons always was a voluntarist, even during his so-called structural-functionalist middle period. The Amherst papers reveal an amazingly complex and logically coherent theoretical system-in the mind of a twenty-year-young man-and testify to an extraordinary scope of philosophical depth, and intellectual maturity.

The paper proposes a concept of embodied subjectivity in the framework of an existential sociology. Starting from Maurice Merleau-Ponty's existentialist-phenomenological philosophy, I present some questions concerning the subject and the body in the social world. These questions are then discussed with reference to Erving Goffman's sociological theory and the work of Michel Foucault. Through the works of these three authors, a notion of embodied subjectivity is constructed, that is, a concept of subject that takes into consideration the body as a fundamental nexus of social relations. Finally, two directions of a possible existential sociology are explored from the notion of embodied subjectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose an agent-based model leading to a decrease or an increase of hostility between agents after a major cultural threat such as a terrorist attack. The model is inspired from the Terror Management Theory and the Social Judgement Theory. An agent has a cultural identity defined through its acceptance segments about each of three different cultural worldviews (i.e., Atheist, Muslim, Christian) of the considered society. An agent’s acceptance segment is composed from its acceptable positions toward a cultural worldview, including its most acceptable position. An agent forms an attitude about another agent depending on the similarity between their cultural identities. When a terrorist attack is perpetrated in the name of an extreme cultural identity, the negatively perceived agents from this extreme cultural identity point of view tend to decrease the width of their acceptance segments in order to differentiate themselves more from the threatening cultural identity. We generated a set of populations with cultural identities compatible with data from a survey on attitudes among a large sample representative of the population of France; we then simulated the reaction of these agents facing a terrorist attack from Muslim extremists. For most populations, the average attitude toward Muslims becomes more negative. However, for some specific populations, we noticed the opposite effect as the average attitude of the population toward Muslims becomes less negative. In these populations, the Muslim agents strongly differentiate themselves from the terrorists’ extreme cultural identity, and the other agents are aware of these changes. These reactions are due to particular properties of their cultural identities that are identified in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many national (US) and International guidelines for physical activity provide guidance that under-active and sedentary adults can begin by accumulating moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in bouts as brief as 10 minutes. This guidance fits well with Goal Setting theory in that goals should be realistic and achievable, and is also consistent with Social Cognitive theory since achieving small goals should boost self-efficacy and thus, encourage continued physical activity. In contrast, Behavioral Economics might suggest that fewer, longer bouts would be more conducive to the adoption of physical activity due to the costs incurred with each separate bout of MVPA. This paper examines patterns of MVPA adoption among a sample of under-active adults from the perspective of goal setting theory and behavioral economics to explore specific strategies to help people who are in the early stages of PA activity adoption. Under-active men and women (N = 225; mean age = 46 ± 10; mean BMI = 28 ± 4.48) who enrolled in a PA intervention participated in a single goal setting session at enrollment. Participants were encouraged to set realistic goals and to increase their activity to meet national recommendations (150 minutes/week of moderate to vigorous physical activity [MVPA]) by the 6-month follow up. This process included identifying a specific frequency goal (days/week) and session duration goal (minutes/day). At baseline, participants reported average weekly MVPA of 14.59 min (± 24), which increased to an average of 140.52 (± 143.55) at 6 months. MVPA goals at baseline averaged 33.24 min/day (± 18.08) and 3.85 days/week (± 1.31). Analyses showed that longer session duration goals set at baseline were associated with more weekly minutes of MVPA at 6 months (b = 1.26, SE = 0.58, t = 2.17, p = 0.03). There was no significant association between goals for number of days per week (frequency) or total minutes of weekly MVPA (minutes x frequency) and MVPA at 6 months. Widely promoted guidelines for uptake of physical activity recommend accumulating physical activity in bouts as short as 10 minutes. This recommendation may ultimately hinder the adoption of physical activity among under-active and sedentary individuals. For the purposes of behavioral adoption of MVPA, more ambitious session duration goals appear to result in higher levels of physical activity participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Propagating phenomena in networks have received significant amount of attention within various domains, ranging from contagion in epidemiology, to diffusion of innovations and social influence on behavior and communication. Often these studies attempt to model propagation processes in networks to create interventions that steer propagation dynamics towards desired or away from undesired outcomes. Traditionally, studies have used relatively simple models of the propagation mechanism. In most propagation models this mechanism is described as a monolithic process and a single parameter for the infection rate. Such a description of the propagation mechanism is a severe simplification of mechanisms described in various theoretical exchange theories and phenomena found in real world settings, and largely fails to capture the nuances present in such descriptions. Recent work has suggested that such a simplification may not be sufficient to explain observed propagation dynamics, as nuances of the mechanism of propagation can have a severe impact on its dynamics. This suggests a better understanding of the role of the propagation mechanism is desired. In this paper we put forward a novel framework and model for propagation, the RTR framework. This framework, based on communication theory, decomposes the propagation mechanism into three sub-processes; Radiation, Transmission and Reception (RTR). We show that the RTR framework provides a more detailed way for specifying and conceptually thinking about the process of propagation, aligns better with existing real world interventions, and allows for gaining new insights into effective intervention strategies. By decomposing the propagation mechanism, we show that the specifications of this mechanism can have significant impact on the effectiveness of network interventions. We show that for the same composite single-parameter specification, different decompositions in Radiation, Transmission and Reception yield very different effectiveness estimates for the same network intervention, from 30% less effective to 70% more effective. We find that the appropriate choice for intervention depends strongly on the decomposition of the propagation mechanism. Our findings highlight that a correct decomposition of the mechanism is a prerequisite for developing effective network intervention strategies, and that the use of monolithic models, which oversimplify the mechanism, can be problematic of supporting decisions related to network interventions. In contrast, by allowing more detailed specification of the propagation mechanism and enabling this mechanism to be linked to existing interventions, the RTR framework provides a valuable tool for those designing interventions and implementing interventions strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how gender proportions at the workplace affect the extent to which individual networks support the career progress (i.e. time to promotion). Previous studies have argued that men and women benefit from different network structures. However, the empirical evidence about these differences has been contradictory or inconclusive at best. Combining social networks with tokenism, we show in a longitudinal academic study that gender-related differences in the way that networks affect career progress exist only in situations where women are in a token position. Our empirical results further show that women not in severely underrepresented situations benefit from the same network structure as men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce a new agent-based model of opinion dynamics in which binary opinions of each agent can be measured and described regarding both pre- and post-influence at both of two levels, public and private, vis-à-vis the influence source. The model combines ideas introduced within the q-voter model with noise, proposed by physicists, with the descriptive, four-dimensional model of social response, formulated by social psychologists. We investigate two versions of the same model that differ only by the updating order: an opinion on the public level is updated before an opinion on the private level or vice versa. We show how the results on the macroscopic scale depend on this order. The main finding of this paper is that both models produce the same outcome if one looks only at such a macroscopic variable as the total number of the individuals with positive opinions. However, if also the level of internal harmony (viz., dissonance) is measured, then significant, qualitative differences are seen between these two versions of the model. All results were obtained simultaneously within Monte Carlo simulations and analytical calculations. We discuss the importance of our studies and findings from three points of view: the theory of phase transitions, agent-based modeling of social systems, and social psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The viral spread of digital misinformation has become so severe that the World Economic Forum considers it among the main threats to human society. This spread have been suggested to be related to the similarly problematized phenomenon of “echo chambers”, but the causal nature of this relationship has proven difficult to disentangle due to the connected nature of social media, whose causality is characterized by complexity, non-linearity and emergence. This paper uses a network simulation model to study a possible relationship between echo chambers and the viral spread of misinformation. It finds an “echo chamber effect”: the presence of an opinion and network polarized cluster of nodes in a network contributes to the diffusion of complex contagions, and there is a synergetic effect between opinion and network polarization on the virality of misinformation. The echo chambers effect likely comes from that they form the initial bandwagon for diffusion. These findings have implication for the study of the media logic of new social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To examine the use of the term ‘metric’ in health and social sciences’ literature, focusing on the interval scale implication of the term in Modern Test Theory (MTT). Materials and methods: A systematic search and review on MTT studies including ‘metric’ or ‘interval scale’ was performed in the health and social sciences literature. The search was restricted to 2001–2005 and 2011–2015. A Text Mining algorithm was employed to operationalize the eligibility criteria and to explore the uses of ‘metric’. The paradigm of each included article (Rasch Measurement Theory (RMT), Item Response Theory (IRT) or both), as well as its type (Theoretical, Methodological, Teaching, Application, Miscellaneous) were determined. An inductive thematic analysis on the first three types was performed. Results: 70.6% of the 1337 included articles were allocated to RMT, and 68.4% were application papers. Among the number of uses of ‘metric’, it was predominantly a synonym of ‘scale’; as adjective, it referred to measurement or quantification. Three incompatible themes ‘only RMT/all MTT/no MTT models can provide interval measures’ were identified, but ‘interval scale’ was considerably more mentioned in RMT than in IRT. Conclusion: ‘Metric’ is used in many different ways, and there is no consensus on which MTT metric has interval scale properties. Nevertheless, when using the term ‘metric’, the authors should specify the level of the metric being used (ordinal, ordered, interval, ratio), and justify why according to them the metric is at that level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cost-effective and interactive way of promoting healthy nutrition behaviors among adolescents is using information and communication technologies (ICTs). We systematically reviewed studies to identify technologies and their main characteristics used for nutritional interventions for adolescents, as well as to evaluate their quality and effectiveness. Our full protocol is available on the PROSPERO website (#CRD42016035882). A search was conducted across five databases for articles describing nutritional interventions that used ICTs designed mainly for healthy adolescents. Randomized controlled trials, quasi-experimental and observational studies, and full and original papers, all of them published from 2005 to 2015, were included. Study quality was assessed by the Effective Public Health Practice Project Quality Assessment Tool. Our search yielded 559 titles and abstracts. Eleven studies met the inclusion criteria. Participants were recruited mostly from schools. Study follow-up ranged from two weeks to two years. Four interventions were based on the Social Cognitive Theory. Interventional strategies included computer games, programs, text messages, and interactive CD-ROMs. Nine studies used computer-mediated ICTs. Five studies focused on multiple behaviors simultaneously. Participants were exposed to interventions only once, daily, weekly, or according to a pre-determined number of lessons. Five studies had significant outcomes. Our quality assessment revealed three studies to be weak due to non-representativeness of their samples and usage of non-validated questionnaires. Besides the heterogeneity and poor quality of the analyzed studies, it can be suggested that long-term interventions for adolescents that make use of frequent exposure to technological resources, and that have a theoretical component aimed at a single health behavior change, tend to be more successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Trust is regarded as a necessary component for the smooth running of society, although societal and political modernising processes have been linked to an increase in mistrust, potentially signalling social and economic problems. Fukuyama developed the notion of ‘high trust’ and ‘low trust’ societies, as a way of understanding trust within different societies. The purpose of this paper is to empirically test and extend Fukuyama’s theory utilising data on interpersonal trust in Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Australia and Thailand. This paper focuses on trust in family, neighbours, strangers, foreigners and people with a different religion. Methods: Cross-sectional surveys were undertaken in 2009–10, with an overall sample of 6331. Analyses of differences in overall levels of trust between countries were undertaken using Chi square analyses. Multivariate binomial logistic regression analysis was undertaken to identify socio-demographic predictors of trust in each country. Results: Our data indicate a tripartite trust model: ‘high trust’ in Australia and Hong Kong; ‘medium trust’ in Japan and Taiwan; and ‘low trust’ in South Korea and Thailand. Trust in family and neighbours were very high across all countries, although trust in people with a different religion, trust in strangers and trust in foreigners varied considerably between countries. The regression models found a consistent group of subpopulations with low trust across the countries: people on low incomes, younger people and people with poor self-rated health. The results were conflicting for gender: females had lower trust in Thailand and Hong Kong, although in Australia, males had lower trust in strangers, whereas females had lower trust in foreigners. Conclusion: This paper identifies high, medium and low trust societies, in addition to high and low trusting population subgroups. Our analyses extend the seminal work of Fukuyama, providing both corroboration and refutation for his theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Common-pool resource (CPR) dilemmas distinguish themselves from general public good problems by encompassing both social and physical features. This paper examines how a physical mechanism, namely asymmetric payoff; and a social mechanism, reciprocity; simultaneously affect collective cooperation in theoretical water sharing interactions. We present an iterative N-person game theoretic model to investigate the joint effects of these two mechanisms in a linear fully connected river system under three information assumptions. From a simple evolutionary perspective, this paper quantitatively addresses the conditions for Nash Equilibrium in which collective cooperation might be established. The results suggest that direct reciprocity increases every actor’s motivation to contribute to the collective good of the river system. Meanwhile, various upstream and downstream actors manifest individual disparities as a result of the direct reciprocity and asymmetric payoff mechanisms. More specifically, the downstream actors are less willing to cooperate unless there is a high probability that long-term interactions are ensured; however, a greater level of asymmetries is likely to increase upstream actors’ incentives to cooperate even though the interactions could quickly end. The upstream actors also display weak sensitivity to an increase in the total number of actors, which generally results in a reduction in the other actors’ motivation for cooperation. It is also shown that the indirect reciprocity mechanism relaxes the overall conditions for cooperative Nash Equilibrium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes recent sociological debate about transdisciplinarity (Carroll 2013; Puddephatt and McLaughlin 2015; Mišina 2015) as a springboard for elaborating on the sociological relevance of metatheory and metatheorising, with particular attention to Critical Realism. Sociologists need to more forcefully acknowledge the importance of engaging with metatheory if they are to think more productively and creatively about how the philosophical assumptions which shaped the production of theories, research design, research practice, and the organisation of our field facilitate and delimit the production of insights about the multifaceted nature of sociological objects and practice. As metatheorising promotes the neglected procedure of conceptualisation (as opposed to operationalisation) and because it is transdisciplinary (shedding disciplinary boundary maintenance while remaining rigorous and methodical), it should be routinely utilised by social scientists to yield conceptual synthesis and fuller, more adequate forms of explanation of their particular objects of investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do institutions grow? Despite nearly a century of scientific effort, there remains little consensus on this topic. This paper offers a new approach that focuses on energy consumption. A systematic relation exists between institution size and energy consumption per capita: as energy consumption increases, institutions become larger. I hypothesize that this relation results from the interplay between technological scale and human biological limitations. I also show how a simple stochastic model can be used to link energy consumption with firm dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper compares the commuicative definitions of “the social” proposed by Niklas Luhmann and Jürgen Habermas from a systematic perspective. From the results reached, the reciprocal receptions between the authors are discussed and a renewed theoretical interpretation of divergences and convergences is proposed. The hypothesis of the work states that Habermas and Luhmann, based in the concept of communication, converge in a radically dyadic and multi-leveled conception of the sociological analytical unit, however they diverge in its analytical segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a system for predicting increases in virtual world user actions. The virtual world user population is a very important aspect of these worlds; however, methods for predicting fluctuations in these populations have not been well documented. Therefore, we attempt to predict changes in virtual world user populations with deep learning, using easily accessible online data, including formal datasets from Google Trends, Wikipedia, and online communities, as well as informal datasets collected from online forums. We use the proposed system to analyze the user population of EVE Online, one of the largest virtual worlds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper advances theories of social learning through an empirical examination of how social networks change over time. Social networks are important for learning because they constrain individuals’ access to information about the behaviors and cognitions of other people. Using data on a large social network of mobile device users over a one-month time period, we test three hypotheses: 1) attraction homophily causes individuals to form ties on the basis of attribute similarity, 2) aversion homophily causes individuals to delete existing ties on the basis of attribute dissimilarity, and 3) social influence causes individuals to adopt the attributes of others they share direct ties with. Statistical models offer varied degrees of support for all three hypotheses and show that these mechanisms are more complex than assumed in prior work. Although homophily is normally thought of as a process of attraction, people also avoid relationships with others who are different. These mechanisms have distinct effects on network structure. While social influence does help explain behavior, people tend to follow global trends more than they follow their friends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper articulates Sigmund Freud's conceptualization of the social world by surveying and critically examining four of his major sociological works: Civilized' Sexual Morality and Modern Nervous Illness (Freud, 1908/1991b), Totem and Taboo (Freud, 1913/1946), The Future of An Illusion (Freud, 1927/1991d), and Civilization and Its Discontents (Freud, 1930/1991a). The paper also embeds the development of Freud's social theory within its historical context by discussing the impact of various evolutionary, philosophical, and life event influences. It is argued that Freud's social theory is merely a projection of his psychological theory of mind, which is predicated on the biogenetic principle (i.e., ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny). In tracing the development of Freud's social theory over time, an isomorphism is revealed whereby the changes in Freud's psychological thought reflect the changes in his social thought. In this way, Freud's sociology can be said to recapitulate his psychology despite Freud's insistence otherwise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is the clarification of some key concepts of the methodology of biographical narratives. Despite of the fact that this methodology is widely used, its theoretical underpinnings not yet appear to have been systematically compiled. Accordingly, the objectives of this paper are as follows: [i] develop the method of narrative interview and the method of analysis of biographical narratives created by Fritz Schütze; [ii] clarify some of the theoretical points that this author assumes (as the task of sociology and its object of study) through the concepts of self, society and language; and [iii] explore the influences of the theoretical framework of the phenomenological sociology of Alfred Schutz and compare both authors. Its conclusion is the statement that the phenomenological sociology cannot be considered the only theoretical framework that underlies Schütze's methodology, which points out to new questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Any explanation of democracy is based on a worldview. The premise of this paper is that any worldview can be associated with one of the four broad paradigms: functionalist, interpretive, radical humanist, and radical structuralist. This paper takes the case of democracy and discusses it from the four different viewpoints. It emphasizes that the four views expressed are equally scientific and informative; they look at the phenomenon from their certain paradigmatic viewpoint; and together they provide a more balanced understanding of the phenomenon under consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Charles Tilly's relationship to the schools of thought known as historicism and critical realism. Tilly was committed to a social epistemology that was inherently historicist, and he increasingly called himself a 'historicist.' The 'search for grand laws in human affairs comparable to the laws of Newtonian mechanics,' he argued, was a 'waste of time' and had 'utterly failed.' Tilly's approach was strongly reminiscent of the arguments developed in the first half of the 20th century by Rickert, Weber, Troeltsch, and Meinecke for a synthesis of particularization and generalization and for a focus on 'historical individuals' rather than abstract universals. Nonetheless, Tilly never openly engaged with this earlier wave of historicist sociology, despite its fruitfulness for and similarity to his own project. The paper explores some of the possible reasons for this missed encounter. The paper argues further that Tilly's program of 'relational realism' resembled critical realism, but with main two differences: Tilly did not fully embrace critical realism's argument that social mechanisms are always co-constituted by social meaning or its normative program of explanatory critique. In order to continue developing Tilly's ideas it is crucial to connect them to the epistemological ideas that governed the first wave of historicist sociology in Weimar Germany and to a version of philosophical realism that is interpretivist and critical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a discourse analysis of 40 semi-structured interviews with scientists on their views of Occam's razor and simplicity. It finds that there are many different interpretations and thoughts about the precise meaning of the principle as well as many scientists who reject it outright, or only a very limited version. In light of the variation of scientists' opinions, the paper looks at the discursive uses of simplicity in scientists' thinking and how scientists' interpretations of Occam's razor impact on philosophy's representation of the principle and affects the communication between philosophy and science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces relations between the study of work and the evolution of British sociology as an academic discipline. This reveals broad trajectories of marginalization, as the study of work becomes less central to Sociology as a discipline; increasing fragmentation of divergent approaches to the study of work; and -- as a consequence of both -- a narrowing of the sociological vision for the study of work. Our paper calls for constructive dialogue across different approaches to the study of work and a re-invigoration of sociological debate about work and -- on this basis -- for in-depth interdisciplinary engagement enabling us to build new approaches that will allow us to study work in all its diversity and complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a response by Andrew Pickering to Jonathan Harwood's critique of his paper "Decentering Sociology: Synthetic Dyes and Social Theory (SDST)," published in this same issue of "Perspectives on Science." Hardwood's criticisms of the paper; Views of the present author on the sociology of scientific knowledge; Central argument of SDST.

The preoccupation with power in mainstream Western social theory can be challenged from a number of perspectives. In this paper, I consider some alternative ways of conceptualizing ways-of-being in society that are implicit in a number of Asian traditions of thought and, in particular, in Buddhism and Gandhian ideas. In this paper, I challenge the necessity for a power-based approach to social relations. I suggest both that the models of society emerging from Foucault and other major Western theorists are examples of culturally bound local knowledge that have significant negative influences on the conception of alternative social possibilities, and that the resources for such alternatives lie not only in Western forms of utopian thinking but in existing Asian traditions — the full sociological implications of which have not yet been explored or worked out in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to outline and evaluate Pierre Bourdieu's work as it has appeared most recently in feminist studies and the field of gender and education. In particular, it suggests ways in which Bourdieu's theoretical insights could be seen to more effectively contribute to cutting edge debates in both social theory and feminist thought regarding concepts such as agency, identity and domination. It also argues that a more creative and empirical engagement with the recent work of Bourdieu, alongside an interdisciplinary reading of more recent cultural and social theories of power, would be a fruitful way forward in advancing a feminist sociology of education. In the present historical moment and against the tide of postmodern and post-structuralist feminist accounts, Bourdieu is often read as a determinist who has little to offer contemporary feminist debates or who argues that masculine domination is too tightly woven to social practices of a given field. In short, this paper argues that such a view is not only a misreading of Bourdieu's work on fundamental theoretical grounds, but fails to acknowledge the ways in which his more recent work on masculinity addresses both the cultural and social conditions underlying contemporary forms of symbolic domination. In short, the paper argues that Bourdieu's theory offers an analytical breadth and range beyond the scope of anything that a normative, liberal account of masculine domination could provide. Yet, in drawing from such diversity, Bourdieu's oeuvre is able to resist incomprehensibility. It stands as a highly focused, realistic and generative attempt ( McNay, 1999 ; McLeod, 2004 ) to chart the problems of subordination, differentiation and hierarchy, and to expose the possibilities, as well as the limits, of gendered self-hood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methodologically, the most advanced social science discipline is considered economics, especially its neoclassical version. A number of practitioners in the other social sciences, especially sociology and political science, perceive economics as a scientific exemplar in methodological (and theoretical) terms. This methodological exemplar has been, particularly in the last decades, attempted to emulate by some of these social scientists. The outcome of this emulation, by adopting and extending its methods, of neoclassical economics in parts (but not all) of sociology, political science, and elsewhere has been rational choice theory as a general social paradigm. This paper tries to show that many misapplications of the methodology of neoclassical economics in rational choice theory have ensued from such methodological emulation. That neoclassical economics does not necessarily contain or lead to a mathematical rational choice model is the core argument of this paper. The paper fills in a gap created by the current literature's focus on the methodological bases of mathematical rational choice theory in neoclassical economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1885 and 1930, as sociology was becoming an academic discipline, sociology was also being practiced intelligently, innovatively, and self-consciously outside the academy in the social settlements that grew up in America's major cities. In this paper, we first define and give a brief overview of the settlement movement in America; second, we show how the settlement workers were sociologists in their self-definition and action and in their relations with other sociologists; third, in the body of the paper, we describe the sociology done by the settlements in terms of the empirical research they undertook and the theory they created. Our argument is that settlement sociologists produced empirical studies that were both substantively significant and methodologically pioneering; that they did so in terms of a coherent social theory unique in its focus on "the neighborly relation"; and that both their research and theory were part of a critical, reflexive, and activist sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the question of knowledge needs to be reconceptualised if sociology is to make its potential contribution to current debates about the curriculum. It begins with a review of the dominant assumptions underlying contemporary curriculum policy: neo-conservative traditionalism and technical-instrumentalism. It then examines the relativist position on knowledge that follows from the postmodernist critiques that have recently come to dominate social theory, particularly in the sociology of education. The paper argues that, in different ways, each of these approaches avoids the question of knowledge and hence leaves unresolved epistemological and educational dilemmas. In the final section, the paper draws on recent research in the sociology of science to develop what is referred to as a social realist approach to knowledge and explores its implications both for the curriculum and the claims that we are entering a 'knowledge society'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we have captured an underlying mechanism of emergence of collective panic in pedestrian evacuations by using a modification of the lattice-gas model. We classify the motion of pedestrians into two modes according to their moods. One is gentle (mode I), the other is flustered (mode II). First, to research the cause for crowd, we fix the motion modes of pedestrians and increase the proportion of pedestrians with motion mode II (ρII). The simulation results show that the pedestrians with motion mode II are lack of evacuation efficiency and cause more casualties. Further, we use the SIS (susceptible-infective-susceptible) model to describe the spreading of the panic mood. The system can be in the high-mix state when the infection probability λ is greater than a fuzzy threshold. In addition, the distances S from wounded people to the exit are researched, the number of wounded people gets maximum at the internal S = 5 ∼ 10, which is independent of ρII and λ. This research can help us to understand and prevent the emergence of collective panic and reduce wounds in the real evacuation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on our site investigation conducted in 2013, we found that the pedestrian red light crossing at the midblock connecting the campus of Southwest University and living area was low, where most of pedestrians are university students and staff. This paper reports a supplementary work applying the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to identify any psychological differences toward pedestrian red light crossing between university students and their peers. Three social groups participated in the investigation. The first group is the university students in Grade one (Group 1), the other two groups are their previous senior middle school classmates who are now working full time (Group 2) or who are now out of work and school (Group 3). The statistical results indicated The TPB components accounted for 42.9%, 55.3% and 55.4% of the variance of red signal crossing intention for Group 1, Group 2 and Group 3 in the depicted road crossing scenario. The data also showed that there are obvious differences among the participants’ responses to “refrain from crossing” between university students and others, and the subsequent regression analysis revealed the ability to “refrain from crossing” played the most important role in the intention of red light crossing in the depicted scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reconsiders the possibility for unification of sociological theory by the rational choice model. This is induced by the claims of rational choice theorists that extending this model from economics to sociology can be conducive to establishing a unifying paradigm and method to be given 'paradigmatic privilege' within sociology. The outcome of such an extension of the economic approach has been 'sociological rational choice theory' or 'rational action theory for sociology'. Within sociology, such a rational choice model is regarded as a major theoretical or/and methodological innovation and thus a 'new' promise for sociology's unification. Overall, the paper suggests that these 'ecumenistic' claims of rational choice theorists cannot be taken at face value since they are predicated upon dubious views of the relations between economy and society and between economics and sociology, including inadequate interpretations of neoclassical economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnomethodologists (or at least many of them) have been reticent about their theoretical sources and methodological principles. It frequently falls to others to make such matters explicit. In this paper I discuss this silence about theory, but rather than entering the breach by specifying a set of implicit assumptions and principles, I suggest that the reticence is consistent with ethnomethodology‘s distinctive research ‘program‘. The main part of the paper describes the pedagogical exercises and forms of apprenticeship through which Garfinkel and Sacks aimed to develop ethnomethodology as a practice. These efforts were not entirely successful, partly because ethnomethodological ‘practice‘ required an engagement with other fully-fledged practices. Aside from the difficulties of mastering such practices, it was unclear what an ethnomethodological study would add to, or take from, them. Whether successful or not, ethnomethodological research points to the specificity of discourse and action in any given practice which a general theory is bound to misconstrue. Current disputes about cultural constructivist versions of natural science illustrate the problems that arise when the terms of a general theory are used to describe and evaluate specific domains of practice. The paper concludes by recommending ethnomethodology as a way to dissolve an unbridgeable gap between cultural theories and socially located practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the difficulties in conceptualising and presenting research, in particular doctoral work in education, in the current climate of intellectual theorising. It argues that many researches experience a phenomenon described in the paper as 'post-modernist tension' when trying to write in an atmosphere of theoretical and methodological uncertainty. The author elaborates the 'symptoms' of post-modernist tension, and makes a critique of some elements of contemporary social theorising. Nevertheless, the author acknowledges the usefulness of contemporary social theory in challenging traditional research, despite its density and inaccessibility to many researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a critical examination of the papers by Colomy and Brown, West, and Ostrow. Each is considered in terms of how the author's work connects with topics addressed by Goffman and with his own theoretical and methodological approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents several papers related developments in economics as realist social theory. According to the author, social theory expressly committed to work out the nature of social being, and, or how people access social reality is going through something of a revival in economics. The papers presented, provide numerous results, arguments, conjectures, and critiques have been produced in recent years, and aim to take some of these specific developments further. Context of the papers and basic ideas and results are presented.

The central argument of this paper has been that the epistemic structure of science cannot be adequately captured, let alone sufficiently understood, independently of its social, political, and institutional aspects. The argument has also been that for the most part, the major traditions of science studies have tried to isolate and to study the system of science in a reductionistic and piecemeal fashion. This situation will not be corrected by merely developing more new hybrid disciplines, although this too is called for. Neither will this situation be corrected by developing specific and detailed research hypotheses from models outlined in this paper. What is called for is a far greater sense of awareness and appreciation of the fact that science is, above all, a holistic phenomenon. Unless one is first aware and appreciative of this, it is unlikely that one will frame the kind of research hypotheses necessary to search for the interaction effects in the first place.

This paper responds to the papers published as a symposium on postmodernism in the Fall 1991 issue of the journal "Sociological Theory." It argues that postmodernism as a rhetoric and postmodernism as a methodology often diverge among theorists. Further, it contends that theorists' professional locations, including their relative disengagement from undergraduates, may help to account for their attraction to postmodern rhetoric and meta-theoretical gesticulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines Neil Smelser's paper on the history of American sociological theory. Smelser distinguishes three hegemonious stages: first, evolutionary theory, reaching from the beginnings of sociology until around 1900; second, positivism, dominating the first third of this century, and third, structural-functionalism, rising in the 1940s and 1950s and declining in the 1960s and 1970s. He also distinguishes a pluralist, nonhegemonious stage, extending from the decline of functionalism into the present. The inadequacies of Smelser's view of the past take their toll in his analysis of the present. He does not understand the historical relations among the major competing groupings so he shifts to such common sense categories as names, book titles, national grouping and lists of research topics. The national grouping that Smelser singles out, the Germans, are heavily centered on the Habermas-Luhmann dispute. This limits their theoretical range. The near-future of social theory is certain to be pluralist. The strength of Smelser's paper is in its statesmanlike simplification of the issues. The weakness, already implied in the strength, is that it does not have a firm grasp of the categories.

After merely a brief, comparative reconstruction of the three most general theoretical models underlying contemporary Sociology (atomic, systemic, and fluid) it becomes necessary to review the question about the unity or plurality of Sociology, which is the main objective of this paper. To do so, the basic terms of the question are firstly updated by following the hegemonic trends in current studies of science. Secondly the convergences and divergences among the three models discussed are shown. Following some additional discussion, the conclusion is reached that contemporary Sociology is not unitary, and need not be so. It is plural, but its plurality is limited and articulated by those very models. It may therefore be portrayed as integrated and commensurable, to the extent that a partial and unstable (dis)unity may be said to exist in Sociology, which is not too far off from what happens in the natural sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After merely a brief, comparative reconstruction of the three most general theoretical models underlying contemporary Sociology (atomic, systemic, and fluid) it becomes necessary to review the question about the unity or plurality of Sociology, which is the main objective of this paper. To do so, the basic terms of the question are firstly updated by following the hegemonic trends in current studies of science. Secondly the convergences and divergences among the three models discussed are shown. Following some additional discussion, the conclusion is reached that contemporary Sociology is not unitary, and need not be so. It is plural, but its plurality is limited and articulated by those very models. It may therefore be portrayed as integrated and commensurable, to the extent that a partial and unstable (dis)unity may be said to exist in Sociology, which is not too far off from what happens in the natural sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical management studies (CMS) has pervaded the field of management studies, claiming to be based on the Frankfurt School of critical theory. This paper examines that claim. It starts with a brief outline of management studies vs. CMS, and of some of CMS’s goals: micro-emancipation, the production of better managers, good management, and fairer organisations. The aim is to provide an overview of current literature, to outline critical theory’s epistemological theory, and to deliver an assessment of CMS in the light of that. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper considers a decentralized supply chain in which a single supplier sells a perishable product to a single retailer facing uncertain demand. We assume that the supplier and the retailer are both risk averse and utilize Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR), a risk measure method which is popularized in financial risk management, to estimate their risk attitude. We establish a buyback policy model based on Stackelberg game theory under considering supply chain members' risk preference and get the expressions of the supplier's optimal repurchase price and the retailer's optimal order quantity which are compared with those under risk neutral case. Finally, a numerical example is applied to simulate that model and prove related conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been, in the last decades, a bunch of different authors claiming the convenience of describing the most basic elements of current societies as fluids. As a consequence of this proposal, it began the construction of a theoretical model of social fluidity that still needs more accuracy and development. This paper, which is just the first half of a propaedeutic work, trays to build the necessary grounds for the empirical implementation of afore mentioned theoretical model. We start by reviewing the main concepts used by the so called "Theories of Complexity" in modelling complex processes in other scientific fields. Then we point out the limits that may be found in using these theories when modelling the specific complexity of current social fluidity. Finally we discuss how such concepts should be modified and developed in order to be useful in the context of a theory of social fluidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the recent literature in the field of social sciences in which the term "South" is regarded as a theoretical, methodological or epistemological alternative to the colonial effects of our disciplines. Analysing the books of Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Reawyn Connell and Jean and John Comaroff it seeks to point out some of their fragilities and possible alternative paths for a sociology beyond the Euro-American tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a social-theoretical approach to public demonstrations (e.g., software demos, the performances of “market pitchers,” even street protests). Public demonstrations are often viewed as proofs, persuasion tools, and theatrical performances. I argue that they play a larger set of roles in social life. Depending the spaces of their enactment, they may serve as transactional and coordination devices, cognitive and relational tools, mobilization and competition apparatuses, observatories for demonstrators, and resources for project design, management, and assessment. They constitute an important form of interaction and help to structure social relationships. My argument is based on investigations into the uses of public demonstrations by the European Commission and U.S. scientists and engineers. These studies illustrate how “demo-cracies”—regimes that use public demonstrations for the management of public affairs—have developed in industrial and postindustrial societies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR) has been identified as a reliable predictor of men’s behavior, with researchers focusing on evolutionary selection pressures as the underlying mechanism explaining these relationships. In this paper, we complement this approach and examine the extent to which social processes also determine the extent to which men’s fWHR serves as a behavioral cue. Specifically, we propose that observers’ treatment of target men based on the targets’ fWHR subsequently affects behavior, leading the targets to behave in ways that are consistent with the observers’ expectations (i.e., a self-fulfilling prophecy). Results from four studies demonstrate that individuals behave more selfishly when interacting with men with greater fWHRs, and this selfish behavior, in turn, elicits selfish behavior in others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore two contrasting perspectives on individuals' participation in associations. On the one hand, some have considered participation the byproduct of pre-existing friendship ties — the more friends one already has in the association, the more likely he or she is to participate. On the other hand, some have considered participation to be driven by the association's capacity to form new identities — the more new friends one meets in the association, the more likely he or she is to participate. We use detailed temporal data from an online association to adjudicate between these two mechanisms and explore their interplay. Our results show a significant impact of new friendship ties on participation, compared to a negligible impact of pre-existing friends, defined here as ties to other members formed outside of the organization's context. We relate this finding to the sociological literature on participation and we explore its implications in the discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pedestrian movements are the consequence of several complex and stochastic facts. The modelling of pedestrian movements and the ability to predict the travel time are useful for evaluating the performance of a pedestrian facility. However, only a few studies can be found that incorporate the design of the facility, local pedestrian body dimensions, the delay experienced by the pedestrians, and level of service to the pedestrian movements. In this paper, a queuing based analytical model is developed as a function of relevant determinants and functional factors to predict the travel time on pedestrian facilities. The model can be used to assess the overall serving rate or performance of a facility layout and correlate it to the level of service that is possible to provide the pedestrians. It has also the ability to provide a clear suggestion on the designing and sizing of pedestrian facilities. The model is empirically validated and is found to be a robust tool to understand how well a particular walking facility makes possible comfort and convenient pedestrian movements. The sensitivity analysis is also performed to see the impact of some crucial parameters of the developed model on the performance of pedestrian facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]