The Logics of Social Structure

ISBN-13: 9780521417792 / Angielski / Twarda / 1993 / 494 str.

Kyriakos M. Kontopoulos

Opis

In this book, the author proposes a fundamental new approach to the study of one of the most central concepts in social analysis, that of social structure. He critiques the leading models and argues that each is inadequate to the task of explaining the complexity of structures that make up society and the processes by which these structures are formed and are interlinked. A new conceptualization of the processes of societal formation is then presented, drawing on recent developments in the physical, biological and cognitive sciences. This new conceptualization allows for the multiplicity of processes of structuration, which the author refers to as logics, some of which function at the individual or "micro" level, others of which function at the organizational or "meso" level, and still others of which function at the society-wide, or "macro" level. The author terms this new conceptualization a theory of heterarchy, and it is the first truly comprehensive theory of societal structuration.

Recenzje

'Kontopoulos provides a wonderfully thorough and lucid platform from which to understand and interpret the many complex new developments in social theory.' Harrison White, Columbia University

Spis treści

Preface; Introduction; Part I. Metatheoretical Considerations: 1. Epistemic strategies in contemporary science; 2. The dynamics of emergence: the case against reductionism; 3. The nature of hierarchical and heterarchical organization; 4. Some formal theses on hierarchy and heterarchy; Part II. Compositionist Logics: 5. Methodological individualism; 6. Constructionism/compositionism: elementary notions; 7. Complex systems of interaction; Part III. Logics of Hierarchy: 8. Hierarchy theory and postfunctional analysis; 9. The hierarchical theory of social structure; Part IV. Heterarchical Logics: 10. Heterarchical thinking in social thought; 11. Neural networks as a model of structure; Part V. The Phenomenology of Social Structures: 12. Modalities and systems of interaction; 13. Heterarchical levels of social structure; 14. On structural totalities; 15. In conclusion; Appendix: the logics of structuration: an inventory; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.