Research Handbook on Analytical Sociology: (Research Handbooks in Sociology series)

Providing an up-to-date portrait of the concepts and methods of analytical sociology, this pivotal Research Handbook traces the historical evolution of the field, utilising key research examples to illustrate its core principles. It investigates how analytical sociology engages with other approaches such as analytical philosophy, structural individualism, social stratification research, complexity science, pragmatism, and critical realism, exploring the foundations of the field as well as its major explanatory mechanisms and methods. Chapters examine the ways in which analytical sociology addresses crucial concepts, including norms, structures, context, contingency, action theory, and models of social interactions. Offering an in-depth analysis of cumulative advantage, complex contagions, and network amplification, this comprehensive Research Handbook discusses the range of data sources and methods available to analytical sociologists for empirical research, in particular digital traces, historical archives, game-theoretic models, causal inference techniques, social networks analysis, and agent-based simulations. Creating a new synthesis of the theoretical and methodological resources required to carry out research using analytical sociology tools, the Research Handbook will be a key pedagogical resource for students and scholars of sociology and sociological theory, research methods, demography, social psychology, economics, and computer science.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Preface ix Does analytical sociology practice what it preaches? An assessment of analytical sociology through the Merton award 1 Gianluca Manzo PART 1 THEORETICAL CONVERSATIONS 1 Understanding the Coleman boat 49 Petri Ylikoski 2 Analytical sociology, analytic philosophy and analytical Marxism 64 Daniel Little 3 Analytical sociology and its lesser-known antecedents: structural individualism in European sociology 80 Werner Raub 4 Analytical sociology and complexity research 100 Michael Mäs 5 Analytical sociology and social stratification research 119 Carlo Barone 6 Analytical sociology and critical realism 135 Francesco Di Iorio and Francisco J. León-Medina 7 Analytical sociology and cultural sociology 155 Filippo Barbera 8 Analytical sociology and pragmatism 170 Matthew Norton PART 2 PIVOTAL CONCEPTS AND MECHANISMS 9 Action 186 Clemens Kroneberg and Andreas Tutic 10 Interactions 204 Michael Mäs 11 Structure 220 Emily Erikson and Eric Feltham 12 Norms 233 Pierre Demeulenaere 13 Coupled contexts 249 Filippo Barbera and Nicola Negri 14 Contingency and randomness: a modal approach 264 Ivan Ermakoff 15 Cumulative advantage 286 Freda B. Lynn and Hannah W. Espy 16 Network amplification 308 Filiz Garip and Mario D. Molina 17 Complex contagions 321 Damon Centola PART 3 PIVOTAL METHODS 18 Archival data 337 Katharina Burgdorf and Henning Hillmann 19 Digital data and methods 352 Viktoria Spaiser 20 Advances in mediation analysis 364 Kinga Makovi and Christopher Winship 21 Experiments 392 Giuseppe A. Veltri 22 Game-theoretic models 414 Wojtek Przepiorka 23 Network mechanisms and network models 432 Christoph Stadtfeld and Viviana Amati 24 Agent-based computational models 453 Andreas Flache and Carlos A. de Matos Fernandes 25 The many model approach 474 Scott E. Page Coda—The past and future of analytical sociology 490 Peter Hedström Index 506

About the Author :
Edited by Gianluca Manzo, Professor of Sociology, Sorbonne University, France

Review :
‘Analytical Sociology emerged as a distinct area of Sociology around the turn of the millennium. Twenty years later, the Research Handbook on Analytical Sociology provides an opportunity to assess what it has achieved and what its prospects are. The editor and contributing authors are well known analytical sociologists and their chapters provide authoritative overviews of a range of fascinating and important topics. Not only professional sociologists but anyone interested in the social sciences will profit greatly from reading this comprehensive and stimulating book.’ ‘This Research Handbook provides an excellent introduction to the central concepts and methods employed by leading scholars in analytical sociology. It compellingly positions analytical sociology as a viable approach to doing rigorous science in which data supports theoretical advancement. The authors embed analytical sociology in its proper historical and contemporary context, articulating commonalities and differences with related intellectual movements and fields within our discipline.’