Making sense of the human world has always been a part of the continental tradition in philosophy. History, justice, and meaning are subjects that have played central roles in continental writings relevant to "understanding society" for three centuries, and dozens of philosophers have focused on these and related topics in deeply fertile ways -- Kant, …
Social science history and historical social science
Social science methods and historical explanation seem to come together in several different ways; what can we say about the differences of approach between “history using the tools of the social sciences” and “social science research that pays close attention to history”? E. P. Thompson treats the making of the English working class. His work …
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Micro cultures?
Is there such a thing as a "micro"-culture -- a culture that is somewhat distinctive of a particular community in a specific time and place, and different from the culture of similar communities in other places?The sorts of communities I'm thinking of might include sports teams, university faculties, union locals, church congregations, street gangs, or …
Explaining large social formations: fascism
In a previous post I discussed the problem of explaining fascism. Let's return to this issue as a topic for historical and social inquiry. There are clearly a number of different explanatory questions we might have in mind: why did fascist movements emerge and gain popular support in the first three decades of the twentieth …
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Variation across a social identity
What does possession of a social identity come down to, for the individual? And how do identities vary across the population of people who possess this identity?First, let us stipulate that an identity is a feature of consciousness, an aspect of mentality. And let us stipulate further that an identity comes to one as a …
Understanding Society 