Full Description
Are social structures products of human action, expressions of individual or group power? Or are they essentially external constraints on human action, necessarily analyzed at a different level? How are themes of power and constraint to be joined in a common analytic approach? These have long been central questions for sociologists. since the collapse of functionalism as a unifying paradigm, however they have often appeared as the basis for sharp divisions between competing analytic paradigms. The divide between structuralism and rational-choice theory has been one of the most prominent such splits. Yet each approach has undergone a revival in past years. The editors of this book, in honour of Peter Blau, brought together a wide range of distinguished sociologists who have taken positions on different sides of this issue and brings them into focus as parts of a common discourse on the place of social structure and concepts of strategic action in sociological explanation.
Contents
Preface; Introduction Craig Calhoun and W. Richard Scott; Epistolary notes Robert K. Merton; Part I. Exchange, Power and Inequality: 1. Rational-choice theory and behavioral psychology George C. Homans; 2. Rational action, social networks and the emergence of norms James S. Coleman; 3. Linking actors and structures: an exchange network perspective Karen Cook; 4. Models of social and market exchange: toward a sociological theory of games and social behavior Tom R. Burns; 5. Family and birth-order effects on educational attainment Otis Dudley Duncan; Part II. Formal Organization: 6. The Weberian tradition in organizational research Marshall W. Meyer; 7. Structural inconsistency and management strategy in organizations Stanley H. Udy Jr; 8. Organizational demography and structural change in the Roman Catholic church Richard Schoenherr and Lawrence A. Young; 9. The technocratic organization of academic work Wolf Heydebrand; 10. The organizational and structural context of employee assistance programs Terry C. Blum; Part III. 11. Penetrating differentiation: linking macro and micro phenomena Joseph E. Schwartz; 12. Social structure and intermarriage: a reanalysis John Svoretz; 13. Network diversity, substructures and opportunities for contact Peter v. Marsden; 14. Kinds of relations in American discussion networks Ronald S. Burt; 15. Social control and social networks: a model from Georg Simmel Ronald L. Breiger; Bibliography of the writings of Peter M. Blau; Index.
