Dissecting the Social

Over the past few decades serious reservations have been expressed about the explanatory power of sociological theory and research. In this important book, leading sociologist Peter Hedström outlines the foundations of an analytically oriented sociology that seeks to address this criticism. Building on his earlier influential contributions to contemporary debates, Professor Hedström argues for a systematic development of sociological theory so that it has the explanatory power and precision to inform sociological research and understanding. He discusses various mechanisms of action and interaction and shows how strong links can be forged between the micro and the macro, and between theory and empirical research. Combining new approaches to theory and methodology and using extensive examples to illustrate how they might be applied, this clear, concise and original book will appeal to a broad range of social scientists.

Peter HestrìM is Professor of Sociology and Official Fellow of Nuffield College, University of Oxford. He is the editor, with R. Swedberg, of Social Mechanisms: An Analytical Approach to Social Theory (Cambridge, 1998) and the author of numerous articles in leading academic journals.

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Dissecting the Social

On the Principles of Analytical Sociology

Peter Hedström

University of Oxford

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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Cambridge University Press
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Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

www.cambridge.org

Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521796675

© Peter Hedström 2005

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions ofrelevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2005

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN-13 978-0-521-79229-5 hardback
ISBN-10 0-521-792290 hardback
ISBN-13 978-0-521-796675 paperback
ISBN-10 0-521-796679 paperback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

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Contents

List of figures		page vi
List of tables		viii
Preface		ix
1	The analytical tradition in sociology	1
2	Social mechanisms and explanatory theory	11
3	Action and interaction	34
4	Social interaction and social change	67
5	On causal modelling	101
6	Quantitative research, agent-based modelling and theories of the social (with Yvonne Åberg)	114
7	Coda	145
References		156
Index		170

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Figures

2.1	Hypothetical decomposition used to answer the question ‘Why do we observe a gender gap in earnings?’	page 22
2.2	Alternative mechanism definitions	25
2.3	Components of a programme explanation	30
3.1	Core components of the DBO theory	39
3.2	Dyadic interaction between actor i and actor j according to the DBO theory	44
3.3	Sources of uniformity within groups of individuals	47
3.4	Belief-mediated interactions in coordination problems (adopted from Lewis 1969)	50
3.5	Decision tree illustrating a hypothetical choice situation consisting of two possible courses of action, A1 and A2	57
4.1	Initial patterns of beliefs, desires and actions in a population of 2,500 actors	79
4.2	The structure of social interaction between Ego and Alters	80
4.3	Typical patterns of beliefs, desires and actions in a population of 2,500 actors who socially interact with four neighbours	81
4.4	Typical patterns of beliefs, desires and actions in a population of 2,500 actors who interact socially with three neighbours and one randomly selected actor	85
4.5	Effects on typical actions of two different structures of social interaction	86
4.6	Macro-level patterns to be expected under atomistic and non-atomistic decision-making, according to Coleman, Katz and Menzel (1957)	89
4.7	Decision situation in collective action problem, according to Åberg (2000)	90
4.8	Social outcomes expected in a structurally undifferentiated setting	92
4.9	Graph of a hypothetical four-category catnet	94
4.10	Social outcomes in a structurally differentiated setting	96
5.1	Blau and Duncan's (1967) path model of the process of stratification	103
6.1	Coleman's micro–macro graph	115
6.2	Unemployment as an endogenous process	122
6.3	Variation in unemployment levels among neighbourhoods that are similar to one another in terms of their unemployment-relevant characteristics	125
6.4	Social and individual components of the outflow from unemployment	127
6.5	Estimated strength of social interaction effects for an average person	130
6.6	Typical action patterns in a population of 2,500 actors who socially interact with four neighbours on the basis of an empirically calibrated action rule	133
6.7	Summary of the results of 5,200 agent-based analyses in which 2,500 agents interact on a lattice (torus) with 50 rows and 50 columns on the basis of an empirically calibrated action rule	134
6.8	Actual and simulated unemployment levels in the Stockholm metropolitan area	139
6.9	Unemployment levels and social interactions in low and high unemployment neighbourhoods in the Stockholm metropolitan area	140
6.10	Effects of social interactions and education on the unemployment level in the Stockholm metropolitan area	141

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Tables

2.1	Main types of explanations	page 14
3.1	Summary of some of the action-related mechanisms discussed in chapter 3	59
4.1	DBO patterns and associated courses of action	77
4.2	Summary of simulation results	82
4.3	Probabilities (=100) of different social outcomes with randomly assigned catnet parameters and varying number of actors acting at the onset	98
5.1	Main traditions of causal modelling	102
5.2	Logistic regression model of the BDA data of figure 4.3	110
6.1	Logistic regression model of the probability of leaving unemployment: regression coefficients, with z statistics in parentheses	128

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Preface

In this book I seek to clarify what a mechanism-based explanatory strategy looks like. At the core of the approach is a set of mechanisms that specifies how individuals are influenced by those with whom they interact. Such mechanisms are not only the object of this book, they also explain why the book looks the way it does.

I have benefited greatly from interactions with numerous colleagues in Europe as well as in the United States. First of all I would like to thank Yvonne Åberg. Not only is she the co-author of one of the chapters, she has also served as a constructive discussion partner throughout this book project. Others who have made time to read and comment on the book include Peter Abell, Patrik Aspers, Filippo Barbera, Peter Bearman, Markus Berger, Michael Biggs, Raymond Boudon, Richard Breen, Magnus Bygren, Mohamed Cherkaoui, Christofer Edling, David Freedman, John Goldthorpe, Carl le Grand, Ann-Sofie Kolm, Fredrik Liljeros, Lars Lindahl, Renate Meyntz, Carina Mood-Roman, Krister Segerberg, Mattias Smångs, Ryszard Szulkin, Lars Udehn and Björn Wittrock. I am extremely grateful to you all.

I also have had the great fortune to be affiliated to several excellent academic institutions; the Department of Sociology at Stockholm University, the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (SCASSS) and Nuffield College, Oxford. These institutions have allowed me to concentrate on my research for extended periods of time and have provided most stimulating intellectual environments. I am particularly indebted to SCASSS. Without its generous support at the outset of this project, this book would never have been written.

The research reported in the book also has been supported by generous grants from the following research councils: the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research, the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation and the NEST/Path Finder initiative of the European Community (MMCOMNET).

Last but not least I would like to express my gratitude to Sarah Caro, my editor at Cambridge University Press, for her patience and support.

Oxford
December 2004