Theorizing in Social Science: The Context of Discovery

by Richard Swedberg (Editor)

All social scientists learn the celebrated theories and frameworks of their predecessors, using them to inform their own research and observations. But before there can be theory, there must be theorizing. Theorizing in Social Science introduces the reader to the next generation of theory construction and suggests useful ways for creating social theory. What makes certain types of theories creative, and how does one go about theorizing in a creative way? The contributors to this landmark collection―top social scientists in the fields of sociology, economics, and management―draw on personal experiences and new findings to provide a range of answers to these questions. Some turn to cognitive psychology and neuroscience's impact on our understanding of human thought, others encourage greater dialogue between and across the arts and sciences, while still others focus on the processes by which observation leads to conceptualization. Taken together, however, the chapters collectively and actively encourage a shift in the place of theory in social science today. Appealing to students and scientists across disciplines, this collection will inspire innovative approaches to producing, teaching, and learning theory.

Genres: Sociology, Theory

272 pages, Paperback

First published April 2, 2014

Reviews

[Jonas Carlsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read all chapters except "Susan Sontag and Heteroscedasticity" by James G. March.

The point of "Theorizing in Social Science" is to spark a discussion about how social scientists come up wih their theories. According to Swedberg, education puts too much focus on teaching existing theory and standardised methods. He wants more emphasis on the process of theorising. A lot of the chapters are especially great. I liked those that were really concrete in their examples, for example the chapter by Diane Vaughan. In that chapter, she explains how she uses three unrelated cases of organisational misconduct to refine her theory of deviance in organisations. However, a lot of chapters are very abstract and draw upon a lot of different theory. Most of it is relevant to the discussions in the chapter, but sometimes you lose the point the author's trying to make due to sheer information overload. Even though there are some throughlines - theorising as a process, American pragmatism, abduction - the chapters display wildly different approaches to theorising. This is both a strength and weakness of the book. It would have been nice if the book had been a bit more oriented towards how to theorise in practice. Then again, maybe the book would have been more of a book on methods, and I don't think that's Swedberg's intention. In sum, an interesting although also a bit uneven book.

[Kasper · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about the activity of developing theory, or theorizing. In a series of very different chapters, the authors explore how to theorize, what the steps in theorizing are, what the state of mind of the theorist is or should be, and many similar questions. I really enjoyed the chapters by Sweberg (contrasting theory and theorizing), Weick (why theorizing is like being on the rack), Klein (three questions to ask: a theory of what. why should we care, what merit is there in your explanation), Turner, and Paulsen ("counter factual imagination", such a nice indirect link to design). Other chapters were less interesting to me. But overall, an interesting book on a long neglected topic.