The Politics of Method in the Human Sciences: Positivism and Its Epistemological Others(Politics, History, and Culture)

The Politics of Method in the Human Sciences provides a remarkable comparative assessment of the variations of positivism and alternative epistemologies in the contemporary human sciences. Often declared obsolete, positivism is alive and well in a number of the fields; in others, its influence is significantly diminished. The essays in this collection investigate its mutations in form and degree across the social science disciplines. Looking at methodological assumptions field-by-field, individual essays address anthropology, area studies, economics, history, the philosophy of science, political science and political theory, psychology and psychoanalysis, and sociology. Essayists trace disciplinary developments through the long twentieth century, focusing on the decades since World War II. Contributors explore and contrast some of the major alternatives to positivist epistemologies, including Marxism, psychoanalysis, poststructuralism, narrative theory, and actor-network theory. Almost all of the essays are written by well-known practitioners of the fields discussed. Some essayists approach positivism and anti-positivism via close readings of texts influential in their respective disciplines. Some engage in ethnographies of the present-day human sciences; others are more historical in method. All of them critique contemporary social scientific practice. Together, they trace a trajectory of thought and method running from the past through the present and pointing toward possible futures. Contributors Andrew Abbott Daniel Breslau Michael Burawoy Andrew Collier Michael Dutton Geoff Eley Anthony Elliott Stephen Engelmann Sandra Harding Emily Hauptmann Webb Keane Tony Lawson Sophia Mihic Philip Mirowski Timothy Mitchell William H. Sewell Jr. Margaret R. Somers Elizabeth Wingrove

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Positivism and Its Others in the Social Sciences / George Steinmetz 1 Part One. Positivism and Nonpositivism in Twentieth-Century Social Science Anthropology Estrangement, Intimacy, and the Objects of Anthropology / Webb Keane 59 Area Studies/Asian Studies The Trick of Words: Asian Studies, Translation, and the Problems of Knowledge / Michael Dutton 89 Economics Economists and the Economy in the Twentieth Century / Timothy Mitchell 126 Economics/Philosophy of Science How Positivism Made a Pact with the Postwar Social Sciences in the United States / Philip Mirowski 142 History The Political Unconscious of Social and Cultural History, or, Confessions of a Former Quantitative Historian / William H. Sewell Jr. 173 Political Science/Political Theory Defining “Theory” in Postwar Political Science / Emily Hauptmann 207 Sociology and Economics Beware Trojan Horses Bearing Social Capital: How Privatization Turned Solidarity into a Bowling Team / Margaret R. Somers 233 Sociology Scientific Authority and the Transition to Post-Fordism: The Plausibility of Positivism in U. S. Sociology since 1945 / George Steinmetz 275 Part Two. Alternatives to Positivism in the Human Sciences Philosophy and Critical Realism Critical Realism / Andrew Collier 327 Philosophy and Standpoint Theory Negotiating with a Positivist Legacy: New Social Justice Movements and a Standpoint Politics of Method / Sandra Harding 346 Economics and Critical Realism A Perspective on Modern Economics / Tony Lawson 366 Process and Temporality in Sociology The Idea of Outcome in U. S. Sociology / Andrew Abbott 393 Psychoanalysis as Critique Psychoanalysis and the Theory of the Subject / Anthony Elliott 427 Sociology of Science The Real and the Imaginary in Economic Methodology / Daniel Breslau 451 Making Sense In and Of Political Science Facts, Values, and “Real” Numbers / Sophia Mihic, Stephen G. Engelmann, and Elizabeth Rose Wingrove 470 Being Undisciplined On Your Marx: From Cultural History to the History of Society / Geoff Eley 496 Conclusion: Provincializing the Social Sciences / Michael Burawoy 508 References 527 Contributors 583 Index 587 Citation Index 607

About the Author :
George Steinmetz is Professor of Sociology and German Studies at the University of Michigan. He is the author of Regulating the Social: The Welfare State and Local Politics in Imperial Germany and The Devil’s Handwriting: Ethnographic Discourse and “Native Policy” in the German Overseas Empire (Southwest Africa, Samoa, and Quingdao/China) (forthcoming) and the editor of State/Culture: State-Formation after the Cultural Turn.

Review :
"George Steinmetz and his colleagues present provocative perspectives on the politics of knowledge in the human sciences. Magisterial overviews jostle with unsettling manifestos in this comprehensive and challenging collection. The Politics of Method in the Human Sciences is a necessary prolegomenon to any future epistemological debate." --John Lie, Class of 1959 Professor and Dean of International and Area Studies, University of California, Berkeley "By contrasting the diverse trajectories and strategies of positivist method within each discipline, The Politics of Method in the Human Sciences develops a comparative perspective which has been lacking in virtually all prior treatments of positivism in social science. The contrasts in the form and prestige that positivist method assumed in each discipline are striking."--Craig Calhoun, President of the Social Science Research Council "The volume makes clear the need for systematic comparative historical studies of the social sciences, without providing this. It offers critiques of contemporary practices, and critiques of those critiques... It contains much that is worth reading."--Roger E. Backhouse, History of Political Economy "Steinmetz's contributors usefully illustrate current debates, and, more importantly, they point to an emergent consensus within much of the social sciences. They sketch out a possible route for the future of the social sciences."--Anthony King, Philosophy of the Social Sciences "The Politics of Method in the Human Sciences offers a fascinating set of inquiries into the shifting foundations of epistemological practice within the social sciences... It remains a significant accomplishment to have brought together such consistently interesting metatheoretical reflections on the full range of social-science disciplines... Exceptionally stimulating..."--William Sites, Social Service Review