Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Dietrich Rueschemeyer is professor emeritus of sociology at Brown University and a research professor at Brown's Watson Institute for International Studies. He is the author of Power and the Division of Labor and the coeditor of Bringing the State Back In, among many other books.

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"Usable Theory is a boon to everyone in search of tools to understand the social world. Those tempted to see theory simply as a means of demonstrating erudition and those tempted to substitute rigorous measurement for engagement with theory should both read Rueschemeyer's new book. With unpretentious but sophisticated clarity, he shows how theory can be a powerful, practical means for getting leverage on a full array of substantive problems."--Peter B. Evans, University of California, Berkeley

"Dietrich Rueschemeyer walks the same path as sociology's founders, particularly Max Weber, and all those in contemporary theory who have sought to resolve the micro-macro gap. He has succeeded where many others have failed. This is a masterful work."--Jonathan H. Turner, University of California, Riverside

"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

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Usable Theory

Princeton University Press

Contents

Preface........................................................................ixChapter I Analytic Tools for Social and Political Research.....................1Chapter II A General Frame: Social Action......................................27Chapter III Knowledge..........................................................40Chapter IV Norms...............................................................64Chapter V Preferences..........................................................87Chapter VI Emotions............................................................107Chapter VII "The Human Group" Revisited........................................123Chapter VIII Midpoint..........................................................135Chapter IX Aggregations........................................................152Chapter X Collective Action....................................................168Chapter XI Power and Cooperation...............................................183Chapter XII Institutions.......................................................204Chapter XIII Social Identities.................................................228Chapter XIV Macrocontexts......................................................243Chapter XV Cultural Explanations...............................................265Chapter XVI Conclusion: Usable Theory?.........................................286References.....................................................................301Index..........................................................................325

Chapter One

This book is an essay in empirical social theory. It will present tools for theory construction in the course of empirical research. I will describe established theoretical ideas and suggest new ones-pieces of theory that seem useful for formulating research questions, for identifying key factors important for the issues at hand, for devising explanations of puzzling and remarkable outcomes, and for exploring possible future developments.

Fully developed theories-by this I mean integrated sets of empirical hypotheses that hold under specified conditions-are fairly rare in social and political analysis; rarer than many find it comfortable to recognize. Full-fledged theories do exist in social and political analysis. The body of propositions about interaction, emergent norms, and social control generated by small group research is a well-known example. However, on most issues and problems there simply do not exist theories of this kind that can be "taken off the shelf" and applied "as is" to a given problem. At the same time, different elements of theory in a broader sense-ranging from initial conceptualizations to freestanding causal hypotheses-remain indispensable for making sense of social life. Almost inevitably, then, meaningful social and political research will involve theory construction. It is for this theory work within the process of empirical research that I wish to offer analytic tools as well as encouragement.

Foremost among these analytic tools are focused theory frames that guide hypothesis formation but do not themselves contain or logically entail a body of testable hypotheses. They identify the kinds of causal conditions and process patterns that seem relevant for a given range of issues, they offer concepts that correspond to these identifications, and they give reasons for the choices made. Though occasionally also including empirical theoretical claims, they are primarily helpful in developing testable hypotheses. We ask about theory frames how fruitful they are in suggesting empirical propositions rather than judging them as empirically true or not. Yet the utility criterion represents an indirect link to empirical reality. For instance, the study of social movements has been greatly advanced since the 1970s when structural, cultural, and rational action ideas that had been separately developed in research on movements were integrated with each other, linking a focus on political opportunities with emphases on resource mobilization and organizational capacity, as well as on social constructions of meaning through "cognitive framing" (McAdam, McCarthy, and Zald 1988; Tarrow 1994; McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly 1997; Goodwin and Jasper 2004).

Theory frames are often underestimated; this is due partly to the fact that they fall short of the ideal of a full-fledged theory. Yet, to venture a strong claim, it is such theory frames rather than fully developed empirical theories that represent the strongest advances in the social sciences over the last 150 years. Among the many instances that come to mind are the claims of Durkheim (1893/1964) and Simmel (1908/1955) on the nexus between modern social structures and a person's individuality, the sequence of Marxian analyses of class formation, game theoretical explorations of interaction under simple motivational assumptions, Olson's Logic of Collective Action (1965) and the discussion that followed it, or Steven Lukes's consequential reflections on a series of community power studies in his Power: A Radical View (1974).

Theory frames give the context within which the more detailed theoretical work is to be done-developing fresh hypotheses, adjusting concept formation and hypothesis development to each other, complementing and elaborating hypotheses that hold promise but fail to sufficiently specify their domain or the conditions activating the hypothesized mechanisms, and the like. Throughout, I will concentrate on ideas that are portable across different substantive areas rather than on insights that are confined to specific domains such as family and kinship, work in offices and factories, or the dynamics of electoral choice in politics.

What this volume offers, then, differs from most treatments of theory in the social sciences. Some of these present mostly normative theory. Though normative theory is shot through with assumptions about how social and political life actually works, its main thrust is to state what should be, not what is. In political science, normative conceptions and their history constitute the bulk of what is commonly understood as political theory-the rich heritage of views ranging from Aristotle to Thomas Aquinas, from Hobbes and Locke to Bentham and John Stuart Mill, and today from Robert Nozick to John Rawls, Martha Nussbaum, and Amartya Sen.

In sociology, the teaching of theory typically presents surveys centered on Marx, Durkheim, and Weber in the nineteenth century and the work of such thinkers as Mead, Parsons, Habermas, Foucault, Bourdieu, and Coleman in the twentieth. Bracketing their normative orientations, it focuses on the broad theoretical orientations and grand designs of analysis the different theorists advocate-on structural functionalism, power and conflict theory, symbolic interactionism, poststructuralism, or rational action theory-rather than on empirical propositions. Such comprehensive "metatheories" may give broad context and direction to more focused theory frames and specific hypothesis formation, but they often have another, more hidden side as well. They frequently also serve as elements of comprehensive worldviews, linking theory to broad ideological and philosophical orientations. This, more than...