| Usable Theory: Analytic Tools for Social and Political Research Contributor(s): Rueschemeyer, Dietrich (Author) |
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ISBN: 0691129592 ISBN-13: 9780691129594 Publisher: Princeton University Press OUR PRICE: $39.90 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 2009 Annotation: ""Usable Theory" may be the best book on social theory since "Weber's Economy and Society." If Rueschemeyer is right that integrated sets of confirmed and general propositions about the social world will one day be possible (and I think he is), this book will contribute greatly to that achievement. In the meantime, it will prove immensely stimulating to new researchers and veteran academics alike in their quest to achieve firmer local knowledge. Essential reading."--James Mahoney, Northwestern University "This book is a winner, and I believe it will become a standard reference in social theory."--Gary Goertz, University of Arizona |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Research - Social Science | Methodology - Political Science |
| Dewey: 320.072 |
| LCCN: 2009000514 |
| Physical Information: 0.9" H x 6" W x 9.1" (1.10 lbs) 352 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The project of twentieth-century sociology and political science--to create predictive scientific theory--resulted in few full-scale theories that can be taken off the shelf and successfully applied to empirical puzzles. Yet focused theory frames that formulate problems and point to relevant causal factors and conditions have produced vibrant, insightful, and analytically oriented empirical research. While theory frames alone cannot offer explanation or prediction, they guide empirical theory formation and give direction to inferences from empirical evidence. They are also responsible for much of the progress in the social sciences. In Usable Theory, distinguished sociologist Dietrich Rueschemeyer shows graduate students and researchers how to construct theory frames and use them to develop valid empirical hypotheses in the course of empirical social and political research. Combining new ideas as well as analytic tools derived from classic and recent theoretical traditions, the book enlarges the rationalist model of action by focusing on knowledge, norms, preferences, and emotions, and it discusses larger social formations that shape elementary forms of action. Throughout, Usable Theory seeks to mobilize the implicit theoretical social knowledge used in everyday life.
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