Structures of Power and Constraint
Structures of Power and Constraint
Marshall W. Meyer
W. Richard Scott
£50.00
GBPAre 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.
Product details
June 2009Paperback
9780521113168
508 pages
229 × 152 × 29 mm
0.74kg
Available
Table of 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.
