The Heterogeneous

Social

Daniel LittleUniversity of Michigan-Dearborn

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Section 1. Challenges facing Chinese social science researchA time of paradigm transitionThe challenge of China’s rapid social

changeAn inventory of changeA new sociology for ChinaThe need for a post-positivist social

science in China

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Section 2. Why the “philosophy of social science”?Why do we need a philosophy of social

science?What are the foundational questions?How should we pursue a philosophy of

social science?

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What is the philosophy of social science?Careful, analytical treatment of the most

basic problems that arise in the study of society and social behavior

Major areas of question include ontology, methodology, theory, and explanation

The social sciences are more difficult than the natural sciences

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Some guiding questions for philosophy of social scienceWhat is the nature of the “social”?How can we investigate social properties

and structures?What makes a study “scientific”?What is the role of social theory in

explaining the social world?

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A method for philosophy of science Some philosophers approach these questions on

the basis of purely philosophical assumptions A better approach is to engage with working social

scientists and uncover the conceptual and methodological problems they are confronted with.

Use philosophical skills of reasoning and analysis to clarify these issues.

There is no “master theory” of science that covers all the sciences.

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Section 3. Current discussions of the social sciencesMany reflective social scientists have called

for a rethinking of the foundations of the social sciences.

Philosophers can learn from these debates.

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Comparative historical sociology

Study large historical structures (Theda Skocpol) Small-N research: a limited range of carefully

chosen cases Seek out historical causes by comparing similar

historical processes in different settings Historical process is contingent and path-

dependent The study of revolutions, corruption, collective

action, and social welfare systems

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Social causal mechanisms

Social change occurs through concrete social causal mechanisms (Charles Tilly)

It is a legitimate social science research goal to attempt to uncover the social mechanisms at work in particular cases.

Example: the effects of free-rider behavior in the provision of collective goods

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Case study methodology

A research strategy aimed at discovery of causal mechanisms through detailed study of individual historical cases.

Process-tracing: “the attempt to trace the links between possible causes and observed outcomes” (George and Bennett).

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New institutionalism

New emphasis on the causal role that institutions play in social process

Detailed studies of the particulars of some social institutions through which social behavior is structured.

Example: rules defining liability for grazing animals (Shasta County)

Example: different technology regimes in different countries lead to very different implementation of technology like railroads

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Social ontology

New efforts to provide a better framework for defining social entities (Andrew Abbott)

Do social things have fixed, permanent properties?

Or are they malleable and flexible, changing substantially over time?

“A social entity is not a fixed thing with permanent properties.… It is rather a continuing swirl of linked social activities.”

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The cultural turn

New recognition of the causal role played by cultural differences: norms, practices, attitudes, beliefs.

The value of turning to some of the tools of ethnography to study subjects not usually considered by anthropologists -- e.g. industrial change.

“Culture is a feature of all social life, and every area of social science research needs the theoretical ability to analyze the role of culture.”

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Quantitative social science

It is crucial that we understand the presuppositions that are made in applying various statistical tools to social data.

The logic of experimentation is difficult or impossible to reproduce in the area of social research, and “quasi-experimentation” does not serve the same function.

Conclusions about causation based on discovery of correlations must be provided with theories of the underlying social causal mechanisms.

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Section 4. A philosophy of social scienceSummary -- Methodological localism

Microfoundations thesisThe importance of causal mechanismsThe lack of strong social regularities and

generalizations

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Section 4.1. Methodological localism How does the social world work? I offer a

social ontology I refer to as “Methodological Localism”.

The “molecule” of all social life is the socially constructed and socially situated individual, who lives and acts within a set of local social relationships.

There are large social structures; but these are only possible insofar as they are embodied in the actions and states of socially constructed individuals.

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Battle of the Overpass

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Ontology and methodology

We need a defensible ontology of the social world before we can intelligently choose methods and theories.

The ontology doesn’t dictate how we conduct research; but it places constraints on the nature of the theories and methods we use.

ML does not entail that our methods of research need to proceed from the local to the macro.

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Microfoundations for social processes An assertion of a structure or process at the

macro-social level must be supplemented by Knowledge about what it is about the local

circumstances of choice of individuals that leads them to act in such a way as to bring about the macro-structure;

Knowledge of the aggregative processes that lead from individual actions to the macro-event or structure

We must be able to envision the pathways by which socially constituted individuals are influenced by distant social conditions.

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Four large areas of questions for the social sciences what makes individual agents tick?

accounts or mechanisms of choice and action at the level of the individual; performative action, rational action, impulse, ...

how are individuals formed and constituted? accounts of social development, acquisition of preferences,

worldview, moral frameworks. How are individuals situated?

institutions, incentives, constraints how are individual agents' actions aggregated to meso

and macro level? social mechanisms aggregating individual actions

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…

These areas of research combine to give upward and downward social influence. Social institutions and facts influence agents; and agents' actions influence institutions and outcomes.

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Advantages of methodological localismThe approach represents a limited social

ontology.The approach avoids reification: the

postulation of permanent “essences” corresponding to our concepts.

Localism provides an intellectual foundation for almost all forms of social research.

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Section 4.2. Causal mechanisms

Social explanation depends on the discovery of underlying causal mechanisms giving rise to outcomes of interest.

There are many kinds of social causal mechanisms. Examnple: free-rider behavior

Explanation does not reduce to the discovery of regularities; instead, the discovery of causal mechanisms explains the regularities.

Social outcomes are highly contingent and path-dependent.

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The nature of social causal mechanisms The causal properties of social entities derive

from the structured circumstances of agency of the individuals who make up social entities.

“Agency” and “structure” are fundamental, and each underlies and constrains the other.

Social causes work through the influence of patterns of social behavior on individual actions, beliefs, values, and choices (micro-foundations thesis)

All “macro-” causation must be grounded in facts about local agents.

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Section 4.3. Generalizations and predictions Some social scientists and philosophers believe

that scientific knowledge is inseparable from the discovery of strong general laws.

The laws of planetary motion govern the motions of the planets; the laws of gravitation explain the laws of planetary motion.

“Naturalism” is the view of the social sciences that insists on the analogies between the social and natural sciences.

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Social contingency

Naturalism is a bad model for the social sciences.

Social outcomes are the result of individual actions and the contingent properties of specific social arrangements.

So we should not expect strong regularities or “laws of nature” in the domain of social phenomena.

We will find “weak” regularities; but these derives entirely from the common features of agency within structure.

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Prediction?

Social regularities “emerge” rather than “govern”.

Does science support prediction? My view is that the social sciences provide only

very weak grounds for making predictions about future social outcomes.

The regularities that the social sciences discover are weak and conditional.

The entities and structures of the social world are plastic and changeable.

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Prediction and explanation

Both explanation and limited prediction in the social sciences depend on our ability to identify causal mechanisms within the social process.

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Section 5. Conclusion

The social sciences need a better social ontology.

The natural sciences do not provide a good analogy for the social sciences.

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A “post-positivist” theory for the social sciencesContingencyCausal mechanismsThe centrality of socially-constituted

local actors in all social explanationThe diversity of the social worldThe multiplicity of the methods of

inquiry and explanation that the social sciences can employ.

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Wreck at Montparnasse

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END