Explaining Social Change : an Analytical Approach

Analytical sociology is a middle-range approach to sociological theorizing which seeks to develop precise and realistic action-based explanations of various social phenomena. At the heart of the analytical approach is the idea that acceptable explanations must detail the mechanisms through which the phenomena to be explained were brought about. In this article I discuss the most important elements of this approach and I try to illustrate the various components involved in an explanation of social change. The analytical approach adopted here seeks to closely integrate mechanism-based theories of action and interaction, and agent-based computational modelling. The article is organized in the following way: first I present the guiding ideas behind the mechanisms approach. Second I discuss various mechanisms of action and interaction to illustrate what it is all about. Third I use a socalled agent-based model for illustrating how one can link individual-level mechanisms to social outcomes. Fourth I show how important it is to empirically calibrate these types of models. And fifth, and finally, I round it all up with some concluding remarks.La sociología analítica es una aproximación a la teorización social «de alcance intermedio» que persigue desarrollar explicaciones precisas, realistas y basadas en la acción acerca de diversos fenómenos sociales. En el núcleo del enfoque analítico se encuentra la idea de que las explicaciones aceptables deben detallar los mecanismos a través de los cuales se produjeron los fenómenos a explicar. En este artículo discuto los elementos más importantes de este enfoque e intento ilustrar los diversos componentes que integran la explicación del cambio social. El enfoque analítico adoptado aquí busca integrar estrechamente las teorías de la acción y la interacción basadas en mecanismos con los modelos computacionales basados en agentes. El artículo se organiza de la siguiente manera: primero, presento las ideas-guía que subyacen al enfoque de los mecanismos. Segundo, discuto varios mecanismos de acción e interacción con objeto de ilustrar cómo funciona el enfoque. Tercero, utilizo un modelo basado en la agencia para ilustrar cómo pueden vincularse los mecanismos de nivel individual con los resultados sociales. Cuarto, muestro lo importante que resulta el calibrar empíricamente este tipo de modelos. Y, quinto y último, redondeo todo lo anterior con unas observaciones finales

Social Interactions and Unemployment

This paper is concerned with social interactions and their importance for unemployment. A theoretical model is specified in which the social and psychological costs of unemployment depend upon the unemployment level. The theoretical analysis reveals social multiplier effects, and shows that multiple unemployment equilibria may emerge. Data on all 20- to 24-year-olds living in the Stockholm metropolitan area during the 1990s are used to test key hypotheses derived from the model. The focus is on the role of neighborhood-based reference groups, and the results support the theoretical predictions: unemployment levels vary more across neighborhood-groups than what would be expected based on variation in observable characteristics, and individuals' transition rates out of unemployment appear to be strongly influenced by the unemployment level within their neighborhood-based reference groups.Social interaction; social norms; social multipliers; unemployment

Considerations on the relaxation time in shear-driven jamming

We study the jamming transition in a model of elastic particles under shear at zero temperature, with a focus on the relaxation time $\tau_1$. This relaxation time is from two-step simulations where the first step is the ordinary shearing simulation and the second step is the relaxation of the energy after stopping the shearing. $\tau_1$ is determined from the final exponential decay of the energy. Such relaxations are done with many different starting configuration generated by a long shearing simulation in which the shear varible $\gamma$ slowly increases. We study the correlations of both $\tau_1$, determined from the decay, and the pressure, $p_1$, from the starting configurations as a function of the difference in $\gamma$. We find that the correlations of $p_1$ are more long lived than the ones of $\tau_1$ and find that the reason for this is that the individual $\tau_1$ is controlled both by $p_1$ of the starting configuration and a random contribution which depends on the relaxation path length -- the average distance moved by the particles during the relaxation. We further conclude that it is \gammatau, determined from the correlations of $\tau_1$, which is the relevant one when the aim is to generate data that may be used for determining the critical exponent that characterizes the jamming transition

Sociological Individualism

Peer reviewe

Chapter 3 Analytical Sociology amidst a Computational Social Science Revolution

"The Handbook of Computational Social Science is a comprehensive reference source for scholars across multiple disciplines. It outlines key debates in the field, showcasing novel statistical modeling and machine learning methods, and draws from specific case studies to demonstrate the opportunities and challenges in CSS approaches. The Handbook is divided into two volumes written by outstanding, internationally renowned scholars in the field. This first volume focuses on the scope of computational social science, ethics, and case studies. It covers a range of key issues, including open science, formal modeling, and the social and behavioral sciences. This volume explores major debates, introduces digital trace data, reviews the changing survey landscape, and presents novel examples of computational social science research on sensing social interaction, social robots, bots, sentiment, manipulation, and extremism in social media. The volume not only makes major contributions to the consolidation of this growing research field, but also encourages growth into new directions. With its broad coverage of perspectives (theoretical, methodological, computational), international scope, and interdisciplinary approach, this important resource is integral reading for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers engaging with computational methods across the social sciences, as well as those within the scientific and engineering sectors.

Mesolevel networks and the diffusion of social movements: The case of the Swedish Social Democratic Party

In analyzing the spatial diffusion of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, this article introduces the notion of a mesolevel network. A mesolevel network is a social network that differs in three important respects from interpersonal microlevel networks directly linking prior and potential adopters of a practice to one another: (1) it is generated by a different causal process than the microlevel network; (2) it tends to be much sparser than the microlevel network; and (3) the typical edge of a mesolevel network bridges much longer sociometric and geographic distances than the typical edge of a microlevel network. These types of mesolevel networks are important because they can dramatically influence the speed at which a contagious practice will diffuse. The mesolevel network focused upon in this article is the network that emerged out of the travel routes of political agitators affiliated with the Social Democratic Party. Computational modeling shows that the diffusion of the Social Democratic Party is likely to have been considerably influenced by the structure of this network. Empirical analyses of the founding of party organizations during the period 1894-1911 support these theoretical predictions and suggest that this mesolevel network was of considerable importance for the diffusion of the Swedish Social Democratic Party

A good professional reputation is in the eye of the beholder

Reputation is audience-specific, write Gokhan Ertug, Tamar Yogev, Yonghoon Lee and Peter Hedströ

Capacitive biosensor based on synthetic receptors for multiplex monitoring of amphetamine-type stimulants in the water system

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