The Vision of Foundations of Social Theory

Abstract

Abstract:Modern society has undergone a fundamental change to a society built around purposively established organizations. Social theory inthis context can be a guide to social construction. Foundations of SocialTheory is dedicated to this aim. Being oriented towards the design of social institutions it has to choose a voluntaristic, purposive theory of action and must make the behavior of social systems explainable in terms of the combination of individual actions. It has to deal with the emergence and mainten~ce of norms and rights, the concepts of authority, trust, law and legitimacy, the viability of organizations and the efficiency oi social systems. But more important than the specific points is the vision of a new role for social theory in an increas~gly constructed social environment. This vision is the motivation behind Foundations ofSocialTheory.

Parental separation in childhood, social capital, and suicide thoughts and suicide attempts: A population-based study

“…Social capital, mostly defined as social network/participation and generalized trust in others (Coleman, 1990;Putnam, 2000), is associated with mental health (Lindström, 2004). The results of this study suggest that social capital in the form of trust is significantly and strongly associated with both ever having experienced suicide thoughts and suicide attempts.…”

Using crowdsourced online experiments to study context-dependency of behavior

“…Sociologists have long been interested in the consequences of context, or "culture," for social interaction and market behavior in particular (Durkheim, 1893;Polanyi, 1944;Weber, 1920). Since then, multi-level explanation of individual action has become a disciplinary hall mark (Coleman, 1990;Merton, 1949;Parsons, 1937).…”

“…More importantly, however, participants' geographical locations provide an interface for direct inclusion of regional macro variables potentially influencing individual behavior. This capability of crowdsourced experimentation is particularly relevant for sociological research which-unlike most experimental research in economics and psychology-fully acknowledges the importance of context effects in a multi-level explanation of individual action (Coleman, 1990;Hedström and Swedberg, 1998;Merton, 1949).…”

“…Our interest lies in sharing of social norms and maintenance of social control brought about by social coherence, civic engagement, and closely-knit networks within a local population. Following Coleman (1990) and others (e.g. Ostrom and Ahn, 2003;Sampson et al, 2002) we assume that social capital increases predictability of social interaction and affects beliefs on others' willingness to punish norm violation.…”

“…In fact, we believe that quasi-experimental variation of the characteristics people bring to the experimental situation is the key potential of crowdsourced online designs. Bringing context back into social experiments is particularly relevant for sociological research allowing inclusion of macro variables to explain individual behavior (Blalock, 1984;Coleman, 1990). …”