finished reading The General Sociology of Harrison C. White 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
怀特是战后美国最具创造力的社会学家之一,也一定并列最难懂的那几位(Identity and Control至今没读完)。这本书算是明白易懂。怀特的洞见:社会现实的网络特质以及空缺链的普适性,很大程度上来自他根本没从古典社会学里汲取什么(他的博士论文没有引用三巨头中的任何一位),相反他的灵感来自物理(他的第一个博士学位在MIT,是理论物理)以及古典人类学(他本科时候就对人类学田野工作很有兴趣)。但这也在后来给他的理论工作带来很多问题(比方在结构理论之外,他的实质性社会关系理论,以及社会本体论的缺席)。有意思的是虽然他自认是结构论者,但Randall Collins(前言写的特别好)和本书作者都认为「过程论」是他理论的底色。和芝加哥的互动论者不同,怀特版本(容我发挥)是微观粒子永不停歇运动的世界
Book
The General Sociology of Harrison C. White
Douban
G. Reza Azarian
publishing house:
Palgrave Macmillan
2006
- 4
Harrison C. White is one of American sociology's preeminent thinkers, yet until now his endeavour to develop a general theoretical perspective on the basis of social network analysis has remained largely unexamined. This book opens out for the first time White's contribution to those interested generally in his social network approach, but daunted by the complexity and mathematical modelling often employed in his published work. Special attention is paid to White's model of production markets, as an application of his general sociology. The book draws on interview material with White himself, as well as with several of his past students.