Analytical sociology and its ‘syntax’ for explanation

León-Medina, Francisco J.

doi:10.1177/0539018417733820

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 41 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For the purposes of this kappa, I will adhere to the "minimal" definition of a mechanism articulated by Machamer et al (2000) as consisting of individuals and their actions, organized so as to bring about change in a social system. On the basis of this definition, individuals and their actions are just as responsible for generating phenomena as the sequential organization of these actions over time (León-Medina, 2017b).…”

Section: Analytical Sociologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Local Social Exposure and Inter-Neighborhood Mobility

Prada

2021

Institute for Analytical Sociology Dissertation Series

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Studies on ethnic residential segregation analyze how the inter-neighborhood mobility of individuals shapes their spatial distribution across cities. This literature has shown that the residential choices of households partly depend on the ethnic composition of their neighborhoods: higher in-group shares promote the presence of more in-group members, and vice versa. However, and in spite of the remarkable contributions, it remains unclear what exactly these studies refer to as "the neighborhood," and how alternative definitions could challenge previous findings.A large majority of studies have primarily adopted an administrative definition of the neighborhood due to limitations in the data collection process. Nevertheless, this definition has typically forced researchers to hold unrealistic assumptions about how households collect the information about the other individuals (Crowder and Krysan, 2016), and to treat the heterogeneity of social processes of large district areas as being homogeneous (Hipp, 2007). More generally, the large extensions of administrative areas have prevented an accurate description of how inter-group exposure affects the mobility dynamics of the individuals at more granular scales, and an assessment of the sociological concept of "the neighborhood" to analyze residential mobility dynamics.This thesis studies the inter-neighborhood mobility patterns of Westerner households for the years 1998-2017 in Sweden. In particular, it aims at analyzing in detail how close and how permanent inter-group contact and exposure must be in order to prompt native out-mobility and, consequently, ethnic residential segregation. In the first study, I examine how the spatial distance between Westerner and ethnic

show abstract

Section: Analytical Sociologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Local Social Exposure and Inter-Neighborhood Mobility

Prada

2021

Institute for Analytical Sociology Dissertation Series

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…While the Coleman diagram captures the larger steps involved in mapping micro to macro and vice versa, it notably does not explicate one of the most central properties of social mechanisms, namely the interdependencies that exist between individuals and the implied dynamics of such interdependencies (León-Medina, 2017b;Mäs, 2018;Ylikoski, 2016). As a result, it cannot easily be used to explicate the core matter of some of the most celebrated mechanisms and models in the field of AS, e.g., Merton's notion of Matthew effects (Merton, 1968) and self-fulfilling prophecies (Merton, 1948), Schelling's segregation model (Schelling, 1971), and Granovetter's threshold model (Granovetter, 1978).…”

Section: Introduction These Values On Individual Orientations To Econ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond Generative Sufficiency : On Interactions, Heterogeneity & Middle-Range Dynamics

Arvidsson

2022

Institute for Analytical Sociology Dissertation Series

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Explaining how properties at the level of individuals translate into properties at the level of collectives is a core objective of sociology. Because the social world is characterized by complex webs of social interdependencies, establishing how micro and macro are related to one another requires a detailed understanding of how individuals are influenced by their social environments and the consequences that such influences have for the dynamics of the social process. However, until very recently, it has been difficult to conduct detailed empirical investigations of micromacro linkages due to the lack of large-scale data containing information on how individuals interact with one another. In the absence of such data, substantive research has tended to (a) focus its attention elsewhere: studying how social factors influence individual outcomes, rather than how actors in interaction with one another bring about collective outcomes, or (b) propose models of micro-macro linkages that-for reasons of parsimony and tractability-often assume artificially high levels of homogeneity. Against this background, this thesis sets out to investigate, first, how the data and tools that have emerged from the digital and computational revolution can help sociologists construct empirically well-founded mappings from the micro to the macro level, and second, how the conclusions about the role of social interdependencies and networks change when the analysis is informed by real-world heterogeneities.A central theme of this thesis is the often-surprising effects of social interaction. As it happens, the thesis itself is an unexpected result of long line of such interactions. My journey from statistics to sociology and the result, this dissertation, would not have been possible without the input and support from the many people I have had the privilege to interact with along the way.First, I would like to thank my terrific supervisors, Peter Hedström and Marc Keuschnigg. Thank you for giving me the confidence, support, and inspiration to develop beyond my methodological interests. Thank you for all the insightful discussions. Thank you for the many rounds of excellent feedback that I have received over the years and thank you for our collaborations. Working and coauthoring with both of you has been an absolute pleasure, and I have learnt a tremendous amount. Your influence has certainly been of the wide kind! I feel very lucky to have done my PhD at such a great workplace as the Institute for Analytical Sociology (IAS), surrounded by amazing colleagues and researchers. During these years, there has never been a shortage of interest in discussing ideas and providing feedback. Countless of such discussions, formal and informal, small and large, at seminars, in the lunchroom, in the hallways, at the pub, have undoubtedly shaped my thinking and made this thesis better than it otherwise would have been. A special thanks to

show abstract

“… 13. In a recent article, León-Medina (2017) also questions the notion of causal micro-macro mechanisms. He argues that causal sequences are strictly intra-micro level.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Coleman’s Boat Revisited: Causal Sequences and the Micro-macro Link

Ramström

2018

Sociological Theory

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article argues that empirical social scientists can be freed from having to account for “micro-to-macro transitions.” The article shows, in opposition to the (still) dominant perspective based on Coleman’s macro-micro-macro model, that no micro-macro transitions or mechanisms connect the individual level to the macro level in empirical social science. Rather, when considering that social macro entities and properties are micro manifest rather than macro manifest, it becomes clear that the micro-macro move in empirical social science is purely conceptual or analytical.

show abstract

Analytical sociology and its ‘syntax’ for explanation

Cited by 5 publications

References 41 publications

Local Social Exposure and Inter-Neighborhood Mobility

Local Social Exposure and Inter-Neighborhood Mobility

Beyond Generative Sufficiency : On Interactions, Heterogeneity & Middle-Range Dynamics

Coleman’s Boat Revisited: Causal Sequences and the Micro-macro Link

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Analytical sociology and its ‘syntax’ for explanation

Cited by 5 publications

References 41 publications

Local Social Exposure and Inter-Neighborhood Mobility

Local Social Exposure and Inter-Neighborhood Mobility

Beyond Generative Sufficiency : On Interactions, Heterogeneity &amp; Middle-Range Dynamics

Coleman’s Boat Revisited: Causal Sequences and the Micro-macro Link

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Beyond Generative Sufficiency : On Interactions, Heterogeneity & Middle-Range Dynamics