Temporality, Events, and Explanation in Historical Sociology

Griffin, Larry J.

doi:10.1177/0049124192020004001

Cited by 200 publications

(110 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…For many years, policy studies, and especially formal policy analysis, often proceeded along the unspecified and implicit assumption that policy-making followed the precepts of what Andrew Abbott has termed a "general linear reality" (Abbott, 1988). That is, that policy causes and effects could be ascertained empirically and that a general set of social forces drove policy-making, with individual deviations from deterministic outcomes existing as "noise" or random error (Aminzade, 1992;Griffin, 1992;Stinchcombe, 1968). Outcomes from such processes, such as policy decisions, were seen as the realization of stochastic processes, in which some underlying set of factors (independent variables) with certain kinds of parameters combined to "determine" a result.…”

Section: Introduction: the Historic Turn In The Policy Sciencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the historical turn in the policy sciences: A critique of stochastic, narrative, path dependency and process-sequencing models of policy-making over time

2006

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This article evaluates four general models of historical change processes which have emerged in various fields in the social sciences -namely stochastic, historical narrative, path dependency and process sequencing -and their application to the study of public policy-making. The article sets out and assesses the merits and evidence for each, both in general social research and in the policy sciences. The article suggests that more work needs to be done examining the assumptions and presuppositions of each model before it can be concluded that any represents the general case in policy processes. However, since neither the irreversible linear reality assumed by narrative models, nor the random and chaotic world assumed by stochastic models, nor the contingent turning points and irreversible trajectories required of the path dependency model are found very often in policy-making, these models are likely to remain less significant than process-sequencing models in describing the overall general pattern of policy dynamics.

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Section: Introduction: the Historic Turn In The Policy Sciencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the historical turn in the policy sciences: A critique of stochastic, narrative, path dependency and process-sequencing models of policy-making over time

2006

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“…Die Forschungslogik der Abduktion geht bekanntermaßen von der Frage aus, wie neue wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse entdeckt und "theoretisiert" werden (Reichertz 2013;Swedberg 2012Swedberg , 2016 (Abbott 1984, Mahoney 2000a. Ereignisse konstituieren sich auf Grund ihrer Relation zu anderen Ereignissen (Dewey 1938;Emirbayer 1997;Griffin 1992;Luhmann 1978: 428 f.;Tilly 2002).…”

Section: Forschungsstandunclassified

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Hoebel

2017

Zeitschrift Für Soziologie

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This article outlines a methodology of processual explanation. Amenable to a wide range of research objects as well as social theories, this methodology allows for generalized conclusions on a higher level of abstraction. We argue that a processual explanation of empirical cas es requires two modes of temporal reconstruction, basic and complex. Whereas basic reconstruction provides a de tailed description of sequences of events, complex recon struction captures interlacing and interfering sequences. Taken together, these sequences and their interlacements as well as interferences constitute the needed explanation of the phenomenon focused on. The methodology is based on two empirical case studies: (a) mass shootings and (b) the rise of the field of empirical educational research. In both cases, the temporal concept of the turningpoint is central to their processual explanation. The research agenda that follows from this article is the integration of further temporal concepts into this methodology.

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“…To account for this relational temporality, we turned to authors like Abell (2004) and Abbott (1992) who suggest a narrative approach based on the analysis of action sequences. Griffin (1992) has defined narrative as the portrayal of social phenomena as temporally ordered, sequential, unfolding, and open-ended "stories" fraught with conjuncture and contingency. In this context, narratives are a means of explaining social processes, revealing chains of events and/or actions that lead to an outcome that is not necessarily predictable as the consequence of a conjunction of contingent events.…”

Section: Multiple Contingent and Fractured Conceptions Of Societymentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconstructing the Temporal-Relational Context: Trans-Action Patterns of Caregivers of an Ill Relative with Alzheimer's Disease

Carpentier

2011

Methodological Innovations Online

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The evolution of a social model of care has been accelerated by a range of factors such as new technology, a change in political parties, and lobbying activity. Further complicating the emergence of the new paradigm is the fact that providing effective care within the community requires an understanding of the context that surrounds the family and the ill person, who must often cope with illnesses that require specialized services and the caring for another person's basic human needs. Using the relational sociology perspective, this study aims to better understand the care trajectory of caregivers of people with Alzheimer's disease. We have adopted a methodologically innovative approach that explores two life histories from the viewpoint of social networks, social representations and action sequences. Only once researchers and policy-makers better understand help-seeking processes in the unpredictable context of chronic illness and social life, can they hope to develop social policies adapted to a population whose multiple needs require long-term community care.

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Temporality, Events, and Explanation in Historical Sociology

Cited by 200 publications

References 21 publications

Understanding the historical turn in the policy sciences: A critique of stochastic, narrative, path dependency and process-sequencing models of policy-making over time

Understanding the historical turn in the policy sciences: A critique of stochastic, narrative, path dependency and process-sequencing models of policy-making over time

Prozessuales Erklären

Reconstructing the Temporal-Relational Context: Trans-Action Patterns of Caregivers of an Ill Relative with Alzheimer's Disease

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