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Theory and society

Theory and Society publishes theoretically-informed analyses of social processes, providing a forum for an international community of scholars. The coverage ranges across a broad landscape, from prehistory to contemporary affairs, from treatments of individuals to nations to world culture, from discussions of theory to methodological critique, from First World to Third World. The effort is always to bring together theory, criticism and concrete observation.
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Approaching adulthood: the maturing of institutional theory
<div class="Abstract"><a name="Abs1"></a>Abstract  I summarize seven general trends in the institutional analysis of organizations which I view as constructive and provide evidence of progress in the development of this perspective. I emphasize corrections in early theoretical limitations as well as improvements in the use of empirical indicators and an expansion of the types of organizations included and issues addressed by institutional theorists. </div><ul> <li>Content Type Journal Article</li><li>DOI 10.1007/s11186-008-9067-z</li><li>Authors<ul> <li>W. Richard Scott, Stanford University Sociology Department MC 2047 Main Quad-450 Serra Mall, Building 120 Stanford CA 94305-2047 USA</li> </ul></li> </ul><ul class="parents"> <ul class="details"> <li>Journal <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/103005/">Theory and Society</a></li><li>Online ISSN 1573-7853</li><li>Print ISSN 0304-2421</li> </ul> </ul>
How to model an institution
<div class="Abstract"><a name="Abs1"></a>Abstract  Institutions are linkage mechanisms that bridge across three kinds of social divides—they link micro systems of social interaction to meso (and macro) levels of organization, they connect the symbolic with the material, and the agentic with the structural. Two key analytic principles are identified for empirical research, relationality and duality. These are linked to new research strategies for the study of institutions that draw on network analytic techniques. Two hypotheses are suggested. (1) Institutional resilience is directly correlated to the overall degree of structural linkages that bridge across domains of level, meaning, and agency. (2) Institutional change is related to over-bridging, defined as the sustained juxtaposition of multiple styles within the same institutional site. Case examples are used to test these contentions. Institutional stability is examined in the case of Indian caste systems and American academic science. Institutional change is explored in the case of the rise of the early Christian church and in the origins of rock and roll music. </div><ul> <li>Content Type Journal Article</li><li>DOI 10.1007/s11186-008-9066-0</li><li>Authors<ul> <li>John W. Mohr, University of California Sociology Department Santa Barbara CA 93106 USA</li><li>Harrison C. White, 413 Fayerweather Hall Sociology Department 1180 Amsterdam Avenue New York NY 10027 USA</li> </ul></li> </ul><ul class="parents"> <ul class="details"> <li>Journal <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/103005/">Theory and Society</a></li><li>Online ISSN 1573-7853</li><li>Print ISSN 0304-2421</li> </ul> </ul>
Polarization and convergence in academic controversies
<div class="Abstract"><a name="Abs1"></a>Abstract  Not many years ago both anthropology and political science experienced internal disputes—in the first case over the publication of a book accusing a noted anthropologist of endangering indigenous subjects and in the second over the nature of the field. While the first led to polarization, the second produced a partial convergence and modest reforms. This article examines the two processes and seeks the key mechanisms that produced those differences, closing with a call for broadening the study of contentious politics to cover non-public controversies like the ones examined in this article. </div><ul> <li>Content Type Journal Article</li><li>DOI 10.1007/s11186-008-9065-1</li><li>Authors<ul> <li>Sidney Tarrow, Cornell University Government Dept. 202A White Hall Ithaca NY 14853-3501 USA</li> </ul></li> </ul><ul class="parents"> <ul class="details"> <li>Journal <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/103005/">Theory and Society</a></li><li>Online ISSN 1573-7853</li><li>Print ISSN 0304-2421</li> </ul> </ul>
Social closure in American elite higher education
<div class="Abstract"><a name="Abs1"></a>Abstract  Elite college admissions exemplify processes of social closure in which status-group conflict, organizational self-interest, the strategic use of cultural ideals of merit, and broader social trends and contingent historical events interweave to shape institutional power in the United States. The Chosen, Jerome Karabel’s monumental study of the history of college admissions at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton from 1900 to 2005, offers a political sociology of elite recruitment and a cultural and social history of the definition of merit that has guided these three schools and shaped much current thinking about college admissions. As Max Weber reminded us, the very definition of cultural ideals of an epoch bear the stamp of elite group domination: not cultural ideals but cultural interests and their strategic uses guide institutional power. The book provides an impressive empirical demonstration of that proposition: it identifies four different definitions of merit as organizational gatekeeping tools that have guided Harvard, Yale, and Princeton over the last hundred years and shows how these definitions were molded by status-group conflict and organizational interests. This essay outlines the central arguments of Karabel’s book; it identifies key contributions for our understanding of the history, culture, organizational interests, and politics of these three institutions; it highlights the social closure framework guiding the analysis; and it reflects on a fundamental ambiguity in Karabel’s thinking about meritocratic ideals as governing principles for modern stratified societies. </div><ul> <li>Content Type Journal Article</li><li>DOI 10.1007/s11186-008-9064-2</li><li>Authors<ul> <li>David L. Swartz, Boston University Sociology Department 96-100 Cummington St. Boston MA 02215 USA</li> </ul></li> </ul><ul class="parents"> <ul class="details"> <li>Journal <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/103005/">Theory and Society</a></li><li>Online ISSN 1573-7853</li><li>Print ISSN 0304-2421</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Volume Volume 37</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Issue <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/g8px07v75246/">Volume 37, Number 4 / August, 2008</a></li> </ul> </ul>
Religious nationalism and the making of the modern Japanese state
<div class="Abstract"><a name="Abs1"></a>Abstract  This article explores the role of religious nationalism in the making of the modern Japanese state. We describe a process of adaptation featuring bricolage, as an alternative to imitation accounts of non-Western state formation that privilege Western culture. The Meiji state, finding it could not impose Shintô as a state religion, selectively drew from religio-nationalist currents and Western models for over two decades before institutionalizing State Shintô. Although we see some similarities to Europe, distinctive features of the Japanese case suggest a different path to modernity: a lack of separation between state and religion, an emphasis on ritual and a late (and historically condensed) development of popular religious nationalism, which was anchored by State Shintô disciplinary devices including school rituals and shrines deifying the war dead. </div><ul> <li>Content Type Journal Article</li><li>DOI 10.1007/s11186-007-9055-8</li><li>Authors<ul> <li>Fumiko Fukase-Indergaard, Columbia University Department of Sociology New York NY 10027 USA</li><li>Michael Indergaard, St. John’s University Department of Sociology Jamaica NY 11439 USA</li> </ul></li> </ul><ul class="parents"> <ul class="details"> <li>Journal <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/103005/">Theory and Society</a></li><li>Online ISSN 1573-7853</li><li>Print ISSN 0304-2421</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Volume Volume 37</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Issue <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/g8px07v75246/">Volume 37, Number 4 / August, 2008</a></li> </ul> </ul>
Becoming citizens of empire: Albanian nationalism and fascist empire, 1939–1943
<div class="Abstract"><a name="Abs1"></a>Abstract  This article uses the case of Albanian nationalism during the period of Italy’s occupation of Albania (1939–1943) to challenge prevailing conceptions of nationalism that define it primarily as a political doctrine that espouses national self-rule. Using archival research, the article discusses the nationalist discourse of Albania’s pro-Italian political and cultural elites during Italian domination and examines the discursive strategies employed by these elites in reconciling nationalism with foreign domination. Among other techniques, the article shows how both empire and fascism’s claim to universality enabled such reconciliation. More fundamentally, the article shows how nationalism’s historical power does not primarily lie in the enunciation of a political doctrine of national self-rule, but rather its constitution of the “inner” cultural sphere of the nation around the problem of split temporality, in which tradition and modernity co-exist disharmoniously. The resolution of this cultural problem requires the exercise of state power within both the political and cultural realms, a solution that Albanian nationalists saw in empire and fascism. <blockquote> A small race, left in a truncated state of only one million, surrounded by enemies and in an envious geographic location, could not survive without reliance on the force and protection of a friendly nation. History, reason and patriotism counseled Albanians that before the European clash, they rely on the Italian people, and therefore it was necessary, reasonable and secure for our... redemption and national development that Albania enter into a personal union with Italy under the blessed Dynasty of Savoy. </blockquote> <blockquote> Kolë Bib Mirakaj, Tomori, 1940 </blockquote> </div><ul> <li>Content Type Journal Article</li><li>DOI 10.1007/s11186-008-9063-3</li><li>Authors<ul> <li>Besnik Pula, University of Michigan Department of Sociology 500 South State St. Ann Arbor MI 48109-1382 USA</li> </ul></li> </ul><ul class="parents"> <ul class="details"> <li>Journal <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/103005/">Theory and Society</a></li><li>Online ISSN 1573-7853</li><li>Print ISSN 0304-2421</li> </ul> </ul>
Social exclusion and social capital: A comparison and critique
<div class="Abstract"><a name="Abs1"></a>Abstract  Social exclusion and social capital are widely used concepts with multiple and ambiguous definitions. Their meanings and indicators partially overlap, and thus they are sometimes used interchangeably to refer to the inter-relations of economy and society. Both ideas could benefit from further specification and differentiation. The causes of social exclusion and the consequences of social capital have received the fullest elaboration, to the relative neglect of the outcomes of social exclusion and the genesis of social capital. This article identifies the similarities and differences between social exclusion and social capital. We compare the intellectual histories and theoretical orientations of each term, their empirical manifestations and their place in public policy. The article then moves on to elucidate further each set of ideas. A central argument is that the conflation of these notions partly emerges from a shared theoretical tradition, but also from insufficient theorizing of the processes in which each phenomenon is implicated. A number of suggestions are made for sharpening their explanatory focus, in particular better differentiating between cause and consequence, contextualizing social relations and social networks, and subjecting the policy ‘solutions’ that follow from each perspective to critical scrutiny. Placing the two in dialogue is beneficial for the further development of each. </div><ul> <li>Content Type Journal Article</li><li>Category Article</li><li>DOI 10.1007/s11186-008-9062-4</li><li>Authors<ul> <li>Mary Daly, Queen’s University School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work Belfast BT7 1NN Northern Ireland</li><li>Hilary Silver, Brown University Department of Sociology Box 1916 Maxcy Hall Providence RI 02912 USA</li> </ul></li> </ul><ul class="parents"> <ul class="details"> <li>Journal <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/103005/">Theory and Society</a></li><li>Online ISSN 1573-7853</li><li>Print ISSN 0304-2421</li> </ul> </ul>
Reshaping the social contract: emerging relations between the state and informal labor in India
<div class="Abstract"><a name="Abs1"></a>Abstract  As states grapple with the forces of liberalization and globalization, they are increasingly pulling back on earlier levels of welfare provision and rhetoric. This article examines how the eclipsing role of the state in labor protection has affected state–labor relations. In particular, it analyzes collective action strategies among India’s growing mass of informally employed workers, who do not receive secure wages or benefits from either the state or their employer. In response to the recent changes in state policies, I find that informal workers have had to alter their organizing strategies in ways that are reshaping the social contract between state and labor. Rather than demanding employers for workers’ benefits, they are making direct demands on the state for welfare benefits. To attain state attention, informal workers are using the rhetoric of citizenship rights to offer their unregulated labor and political support in return for state recognition of their work. Such recognition bestows informal workers with a degree of social legitimacy, thereby dignifying their discontent and bolstering their status as claim makers in their society. These findings offer a reformulated model of state–labor relations that focuses attention on the qualitative, rather than quantitative, nature of the nexus; encompasses a dynamic and inter-dependent conceptualization of state and labor; and accommodates the creative and diverse strategies of industrial relations being forged in the contemporary era. </div><ul> <li>Content Type Journal Article</li><li>DOI 10.1007/s11186-008-9061-5</li><li>Authors<ul> <li>Rina Agarwala, Johns Hopkins University Department of Sociology 3400 N. Charles Street Baltimore MD 21218 USA</li> </ul></li> </ul><ul class="parents"> <ul class="details"> <li>Journal <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/103005/">Theory and Society</a></li><li>Online ISSN 1573-7853</li><li>Print ISSN 0304-2421</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Volume Volume 37</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Issue <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/g8px07v75246/">Volume 37, Number 4 / August, 2008</a></li> </ul> </ul>
The social meaning of money and intimacy: Review of Viviana A. Zelizer, The Purchase of Intimacy
The social meaning of money and intimacy: Review of Viviana A. Zelizer, The Purchase of Intimacy<ul> <li>Content Type Journal Article</li><li>Category Book review</li><li>DOI 10.1007/s11186-008-9060-6</li><li>Authors<ul> <li>Xiaoshuo Hou, Boston University Department of Sociology 96-100 Cummington St. Boston MA 02215 USA</li> </ul></li> </ul><ul class="parents"> <ul class="details"> <li>Journal <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/103005/">Theory and Society</a></li><li>Online ISSN 1573-7853</li><li>Print ISSN 0304-2421</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Volume Volume 37</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Issue <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/hg22381w2822/">Volume 37, Number 3 / June, 2008</a></li> </ul> </ul>
Sequence and strategy in the secession of the American South
<div class="Abstract"><a name="Abs1"></a>Abstract  Secession and the civil war that followed are often regarded as having exclusively structural determinants, expressed in political cleavages. From this point of view, these events are explained, variously, by the rise of abolitionism in the North or sectionalism in the Union or some cultural attribute of the South. This focus gets us part of the way in understanding the events that led to secession, the creation of a Southern Confederacy, and civil war, but this interpretation says too little about precisely how these events and processes played out. Secession occurred in time, sequentially and dynamically, with one state leading and other states following. This article offers a processual specification of the conditions of Southern secession and the creation of a Southern Confederacy. It does so by focusing on mobilization within the vanguard state, South Carolina, and the consequences of this activity for other Southern states. </div><ul> <li>Content Type Journal Article</li><li>Category Article</li><li>DOI 10.1007/s11186-007-9047-8</li><li>Authors<ul> <li>Hudson Meadwell, McGill University Political Science Department 855 Sherbrooke St. West Montreal QC H3A 2T7 Canada</li><li>Lawrence M. Anderson, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Political Science Department 800 West Main Street Whitewater WI 53190-1790 USA</li> </ul></li> </ul><ul class="parents"> <ul class="details"> <li>Journal <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/103005/">Theory and Society</a></li><li>Online ISSN 1573-7853</li><li>Print ISSN 0304-2421</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Volume Volume 37</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Issue <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/hg22381w2822/">Volume 37, Number 3 / June, 2008</a></li> </ul> </ul>
Erotic habitus: toward a sociology of desire
<div class="Abstract"><a name="Abs1"></a>Abstract  In the sociology of sexuality, sexual conduct has received extensive theoretical attention, while sexual desire has been left either unattended, or, analyzed through a scripting model ill-suited to the task. In this article, I seek to address two related aspects of the problem of desire for sociology—what might roughly be referred to as a micro-level and a macro-level conceptual hurdle, respectively. At the micro-level, the sociology of sexuality continues to reject or more commonly gloss the role of psychodynamic processes and structures in favor of an insulated analysis of interactions and institutions. At the macro-level, the sociology of sexuality has yet to provide an analysis of the structural antecedents of sexual ideation. Scripting theory, grounded in a social learning framework, cannot provide a proper conceptual resolution to these problems but, rather, reproduces them. By contrast, I argue that an effective sociological treatment of desire must incorporate a more penetrating conception of the somatization of social relations found in Bourdieu’s notion of ‘embodiment’ and his corresponding analysis of habitus. In this vein, I develop the sensitizing concepts erotic habitus and erotic work, and apply these to a cross-section of feminist and sociological literatures on desire. I argue that a framework grounded in embodiment, but complimented by scripting theory, provides a promising lead in the direction of an effective sociology of desire. </div><ul> <li>Content Type Journal Article</li><li>DOI 10.1007/s11186-007-9059-4</li><li>Authors<ul> <li>Adam Isaiah Green, University of Toronto Sociology Department 725 Spadina Avenue Toronto ON Canada M5S 2J4</li> </ul></li> </ul><ul class="parents"> <ul class="details"> <li>Journal <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/103005/">Theory and Society</a></li><li>Online ISSN 1573-7853</li><li>Print ISSN 0304-2421</li> </ul> </ul>
Bourdieu and organizational analysis
<div class="Abstract"><a name="Abs1"></a>Abstract  Despite some promising steps in the right direction, organizational analysis has yet to exploit fully the theoretical and empirical possibilities inherent in the writings of Pierre Bourdieu. While certain concepts associated with his thought, such as field and capital, are already widely known in the organizational literature, the specific ways in which these terms are being used provide ample evidence that the full significance of his relational mode of thought has yet to be sufficiently apprehended. Moreover, the almost complete inattention to habitus, the third of Bourdieu’s major concepts, without which the concepts of field and capital (at least as he deployed them) make no sense, further attests to the misappropriation of his ideas and to the lack of appreciation of their potential usefulness. It is our aim in this paper, by contrast, to set forth a more informed and comprehensive account of what a relational – and, in particular, a Bourdieu-inspired – agenda for organizational research might look like. Accordingly, we examine the implications of his theoretical framework for interorganizational relations, as well as for organizations themselves analyzed as fields. The primary advantage of such an approach, we argue, is the central place accorded therein to the social conditions under which inter- and intraorganizational power relations are produced, reproduced, and contested. </div><ul> <li>Content Type Journal Article</li><li>DOI 10.1007/s11186-007-9052-y</li><li>Authors<ul> <li>Mustafa Emirbayer, University of Wisconsin Sociology Department Social Science Bldg., 1180 Observatory Dr. Madison WI 53706 USA</li><li>Victoria Johnson, University of Michigan Organizational Studies 713 Dennison Bldg., 500 Church St. Ann Arbor MI 48109-1042 USA</li> </ul></li> </ul><ul class="parents"> <ul class="details"> <li>Journal <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/103005/">Theory and Society</a></li><li>Online ISSN 1573-7853</li><li>Print ISSN 0304-2421</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Volume Volume 37</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Issue <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/gx21q030gu3n/">Volume 37, Number 1 / February, 2008</a></li> </ul> </ul>
Bourdieu and organizations: the empirical challenge
<div class="Abstract"><a name="Abs1"></a>Abstract  Emirbayer and Johnson critique the failure to engage fully Bourdieu’s relational analysis in empirical work, but are weak in giving direction for rectifying the problem. Following their recommendation for studying organizations-in-fields and organizations-as-fields, I argue for the benefits of analogical comparison using case studies of organizations as the units of analysis. Doing so maximizes the number of Bourdieusian concepts that can be deployed in an explanation. Further, it maximizes discovery of the oft-neglected links among history, competition, resources, sites of contestation and struggle, relations of dominance and domination, and reproduction of inequality. Perhaps most important, case studies can identify the connection between macro-, meso-, and micro-level factors in the formation and shaping of habitus. To support my claims empirically, I draw from case study research (Vaughan The challenger launch decision: Risky technology, culture, and deviance at NASA, 1996; Signals and interpretive work: The role of culture in a theory of practical action. pp. 28–56, 2002) that verifies Bourdieu’s as the “Theory of Practical Action” that supplies the micro-level component to the new institutionalism (DiMaggio and Powell, Introduction. pp. 1–41, 1991). </div><ul> <li>Content Type Journal Article</li><li>DOI 10.1007/s11186-007-9056-7</li><li>Authors<ul> <li>Diane Vaughan, Columbia University Sociology Department, 413 Fayerweather Hall 1180 Amsterdam Avenue New York NY 10027 USA</li> </ul></li> </ul><ul class="parents"> <ul class="details"> <li>Journal <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/103005/">Theory and Society</a></li><li>Online ISSN 1573-7853</li><li>Print ISSN 0304-2421</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Volume Volume 37</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Issue <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/gx21q030gu3n/">Volume 37, Number 1 / February, 2008</a></li> </ul> </ul>
Explaining war and explaining war away
Explaining war and explaining war away<ul> <li>Content Type Journal Article</li><li>Category Book Review</li><li>DOI 10.1007/s11186-007-9057-6</li><li>Authors<ul> <li>Monika Krause, New York University Department of Sociology 295 Lafayette Street New York NY 10012 USA</li> </ul></li> </ul><ul class="parents"> <ul class="details"> <li>Journal <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/103005/">Theory and Society</a></li><li>Online ISSN 1573-7853</li><li>Print ISSN 0304-2421</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Volume Volume 37</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Issue <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/gx21q030gu3n/">Volume 37, Number 1 / February, 2008</a></li> </ul> </ul>
The once and future information society
<div class="Abstract"><a name="Abs1"></a>Abstract  In the late twentieth century, many social scientists and other social commentators came to characterize the world as evolving into an “information society.” Central to these claims was the notion that new social uses of information, and particularly application of scientific knowledge, are transforming social life in fundamental ways. Among the supposed transformations are the rise of intellectuals in social importance, growing productivity and prosperity stemming from increasingly knowledge-based economic activity, and replacement of political conflict by authoritative, knowledge-based decision-making. We trace these ideas to their origins in the Enlightenment doctrines of Saint Simon and Comte, show that empirical support for them has never been strong, and consider the durability of their social appeal. </div><ul> <li>Content Type Journal Article</li><li>DOI 10.1007/s11186-007-9049-6</li><li>Authors<ul> <li>James B. Rule, University of California Center for the Study of Law and Society 2240 Piedmont Ave. Berkeley CA 94720 USA</li><li>Yasemin Besen, Montclair State University Sociology Department Montclair NJ 07043 USA</li> </ul></li> </ul><ul class="parents"> <ul class="details"> <li>Journal <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/103005/">Theory and Society</a></li><li>Online ISSN 1573-7853</li><li>Print ISSN 0304-2421</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Volume Volume 37</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Issue <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/g8px07v75246/">Volume 37, Number 4 / August, 2008</a></li> </ul> </ul>
Jurassic technology ? Sustaining presumptions of intersubjectivity in a disruptive environment
<div class="Abstract"><a name="Abs1"></a>Abstract  While the problem of intersubjectivity has motivated a great deal of sociological research, there has been little consideration of the relationship between intersubjectivity-sustaining practices and the physical environment in which these are enacted. The Museum of Jurassic Technology (MJT) is a strategic site for exploring this relationship. With its labyrinthine layout and bewildering exhibits, the MJT provides a natural “breaching experiment” in which concrete elements of the space disrupt normal competencies for sustaining presumptions of intersubjectivity. Using ethnographic data on visitor interaction, this article specifies two disruptive aspects of the physical environment and identifies four methods of repair on which visitors rely to reestablish presumptions of intersubjectivity. The analysis of spatially situated processes of intersubjective disruption and repair in an extreme case such as the MJT is a first step toward “emplacing” the intersubjectivity problem in more everyday settings. </div><ul> <li>Content Type Journal Article</li><li>Category Article</li><li>DOI 10.1007/s11186-007-9054-9</li><li>Authors<ul> <li>Robert S. Jansen, University of California, Los Angeles Sociology Department 264 Haines Hall box 951551 Los Angeles CA 90095-1551 USA</li> </ul></li> </ul><ul class="parents"> <ul class="details"> <li>Journal <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/103005/">Theory and Society</a></li><li>Online ISSN 1573-7853</li><li>Print ISSN 0304-2421</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Volume Volume 37</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Issue <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/t6204k197213/">Volume 37, Number 2 / April, 2008</a></li> </ul> </ul>
The poverty of organizational theory: Comment on: “Bourdieu and organizational analysis”
<div class="Abstract"><a name="Abs1"></a>Abstract  American organizational theorists have not taken up the call to apply Bourdieu’s approach in all of its richness in part because, for better or worse, evidentiary traditions render untenable the kind of sweeping analysis that makes Bourdieu’s classics compelling. Yet many of the insights found in Bourdieu are being pursued piecemeal, in distinct paradigmatic projects that explore the character of fields, the emergence of organizational habitus, and the changing forms of capital that are key to the control of modern organizations. A number of these programs build on the same sociological classics that Bourdieu built his own theory on. These share the same lineage, even if they were not directly influenced by Bourdieu. </div><ul> <li>Content Type Journal Article</li><li>Category Article</li><li>DOI 10.1007/s11186-007-9051-z</li><li>Authors<ul> <li>Frank Dobbin, Harvard University Department of Sociology Cambridge MA 02138 USA</li> </ul></li> </ul><ul class="parents"> <ul class="details"> <li>Journal <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/103005/">Theory and Society</a></li><li>Online ISSN 1573-7853</li><li>Print ISSN 0304-2421</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Volume Volume 37</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Issue <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/gx21q030gu3n/">Volume 37, Number 1 / February, 2008</a></li> </ul> </ul>
Towards a historical sociology of constitutional legitimacy
<div class="Abstract"><a name="Abs1"></a>Abstract  This article has two primary objectives. First, it sets out the methodological argument that the conventional antinomy between normative and sociological approaches to questions of state legitimacy depends on a series of false constructions, and that normative and sociological – or specifically historical–sociological – analyses of states and the processes by which they obtain legitimacy can be (and ought to be) mutually reinforcing. This argument hinges on the claim that historical sociology should renounce some of its common presuppositions regarding the coercive functions of state power and reformulate itself as a normative social science, identifying and promoting models of statehood likely to obtain legitimacy in modern differentiated societies. Second, it sets out the more substantive argument that the legitimization of states can be observed both as an evolutionary or adaptive dimension of state formation and as a process of theoretical self-reflection in which the societies where states are located construct and refine the most adequate form for the transmission of the power they designate as political. In this respect, the article questions common assumptions about politics and legitimacy and makes a case for a change of paradigm in the analysis of these concepts. Through this change of paradigm, politics itself and the methods used for securing legitimacy for politics are constructed as abstracted articulations of a society’s own needs and exigencies. The article borrows elements from the systemic-functionalist sociology of Niklas Luhmann to develop the argument. In this context, the article also uses historical case studies to outline a theory of constitutions and constitutional rights. This theory explains how constitutions and constitutional rights help to generate legitimacy for states by enabling modern political systems, both normatively and functionally, to reflect and stabilize their position in society, to control the volume of politics in a society, and to elaborate socially adequate techniques for applying and restricting political power. The article concludes by suggesting that historical–sociological analyses of the functions of rights and constitutions can provide a key to proposing both normatively and sociologically founded models of legitimate statehood. </div><ul> <li>Content Type Journal Article</li><li>DOI 10.1007/s11186-007-9048-7</li><li>Authors<ul> <li>Chris Thornhill, University of Glasgow Politics Department Adam Smith Building, 40 Bute Gardens Glasgow G12 8RT Scotland</li> </ul></li> </ul><ul class="parents"> <ul class="details"> <li>Journal <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/103005/">Theory and Society</a></li><li>Online ISSN 1573-7853</li><li>Print ISSN 0304-2421</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Volume Volume 37</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Issue <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/t6204k197213/">Volume 37, Number 2 / April, 2008</a></li> </ul> </ul>
Experts, ideas, and policy change: the Russell Sage Foundation and small loan reform, 1909–1941
<div class="Abstract"><a name="Abs1"></a>Abstract  Between 1909 and 1941, the Russell Sage Foundation (RSF) was actively involved in crafting and lobbying for policy solutions to the pervasive problem of predatory lending. Using a rich assortment of archival records, I build upon political learning theory by demonstrating how institutional conditions and political pressures – in addition to new knowledge gained through scientific study and practical experience – all contributed to the emergence and development of RSF experts’ policy ideas over the course of this 30-year period. In light of these findings, I suggest that policy ideas and political interests are mutually constitutive, and that the notion that ideas must be shown to operate independent of interests in order to “prove” that they matter in policymaking is misguided. Furthermore, I discuss the implications of the remarkable success of RSF’s policy proposals for current understandings of institutional change. In particular, I argue that the passage of RSF’s controversial Uniform Small Loan Law in 34 states suggests that political actors’ collective agency can produce significant policy reforms in a context of normal policymaking without the intervention of major destabilizing events. </div><ul> <li>Content Type Journal Article</li><li>DOI 10.1007/s11186-007-9050-0</li><li>Authors<ul> <li>Elisabeth Anderson, Northwestern University Sociology Dept. 1810 Chicago Ave., 1st Floor Evanston IL 60208-1330 USA</li> </ul></li> </ul><ul class="parents"> <ul class="details"> <li>Journal <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/103005/">Theory and Society</a></li><li>Online ISSN 1573-7853</li><li>Print ISSN 0304-2421</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Volume Volume 37</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Issue <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/hg22381w2822/">Volume 37, Number 3 / June, 2008</a></li> </ul> </ul>
Bringing Bourdieu’s master concepts into organizational analysis
<div class="Abstract"><a name="Abs1"></a>Abstract  This article argues that while elements of Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology are increasingly employed in American sociology, it is rare to find all three of Bourdieu’s master concepts—habitus, capital, and field—incorporated into a single study. Moreover, these concepts are seldom deployed within a relational perspective that was fundamental to Bourdieu’s thinking. The article “Bourdieu and Organizational Analysis” by Mustafa Emirbayer and Victoria Johnson is a welcomed exception, for it draws on all three of Bourdieu’s pillar concepts to propose a relational approach to the study of organizations. It both reframes existing thinking about organizations, particularly from the neo-institutional and resource dependence schools, and indicates new directions for research in organizations to move. This paper evaluates their contribution calling attention to its many strengths and suggesting a few points that need future clarification and elaboration. </div><ul> <li>Content Type Journal Article</li><li>DOI 10.1007/s11186-007-9053-x</li><li>Authors<ul> <li>David L. Swartz, Boston University Sociology Department 96-100 Cummington St. Boston MA 02215 USA</li> </ul></li> </ul><ul class="parents"> <ul class="details"> <li>Journal <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/103005/">Theory and Society</a></li><li>Online ISSN 1573-7853</li><li>Print ISSN 0304-2421</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Volume Volume 37</li> </ul><ul class="details"> <li>Journal Issue <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/gx21q030gu3n/">Volume 37, Number 1 / February, 2008</a></li> </ul> </ul>