danlittle - Network

"Rigorous" sociologySocial scientists are sometimes tempted to “improve” the methodologies of the social sciences to allow...

"Rigorous" sociology

Social scientists are sometimes tempted to “improve” the methodologies of the social sciences to allow them to be “fully scientific” in the way that chemistry or physics were depicted by neo-positivists. This fails to give adequate attention to the methods of validation used in comparative historical sociology, and privileges "the unity of science". A review of Klarita Gërxhani, Nan D. de Graaf, and Werner Raub's recent handbook.

#sociology
https://undsoc.org/2024/06/04/rigorous-sociology/

Assessing causes in the past (Kreuzer)In The Grammar of Time Kreuzer tries to bring the problem of historical-causal reasoning under the...

Assessing causes in the past (Kreuzer)

In The Grammar of Time Kreuzer tries to bring the problem of historical-causal reasoning under the rubric of comparative historical analysis (CHA).

"CHA scholars use the past to formulate research questions, describe complex social processes, and generate new inductive insights. And, like social scientists, they compare those patterns to formulate generalizable and testable theories." (1)

Here are a few thoughts.

#sociology
https://undsoc.org/2024/06/02/assessing-causes-in-the-past-kreuzer/

Popper and Parfit: the minds of philosophersThe recent biography of Derek Parfit by David Edmonds can usefully be read in conjunction with...

Popper and Parfit: the minds of philosophers

The recent biography of Derek Parfit by David Edmonds can usefully be read in conjunction with Karl Popper's autobiography. An impression offered here -- it seems as though Popper is the deeper philosopher, and that Parfit was a person obsessed with puzzles and problems that were technically complicated but had little real impact on issues that matter.

#philosophy

https://undsoc.org/2024/04/06/popper-and-parfit-the-minds-of-philosophers/

Hobsbawm’s limitationsWe need both more and less from a historian than what Hobsbawm offers. Hobsbawm’s corpus is fundamentally an...

Hobsbawm’s limitations

We need both more and less from a historian than what Hobsbawm offers. Hobsbawm’s corpus is fundamentally an extensive interpretation based on a reading of secondary sources, in order to make a coherent Marxist story. But we don’t want our knowledge of history to be “pre-digested”; we want an evidence-based account open to contingency and details that do not fit the model.

#history

https://undsoc.org/2024/03/22/limitations-of-hobsbawms-historical-writing/

E.P. Thompson's break with StalinismE. P. Thompson was one of the great social historians of the 20th century and a committed socialist...

E.P. Thompson's break with Stalinism

E. P. Thompson was one of the great social historians of the 20th century and a committed socialist throughout. Thompson was a member of the British CP until 1956. He remained a staunch advocate of English socialism throughout his life. But as a Communist, he showed an unwelcome degree of intellectual and political independence. He broke with the CPGB in 1956. But did he adequately confront the crimes of Stalinism?

#history

https://undsoc.org/2024/02/28/e-p-thompsons-break-with-stalinism/

Defining disciplinary research in the social sciencesDoes the framework of "disciplinary matrix" work well in studying different...

Defining disciplinary research in the social sciences

Does the framework of "disciplinary matrix" work well in studying different research communities in the social sciences? Does sociology consist of distinct "paradigm-driven" sub-disciplines? Kuhn's theory of paradigms doesn't work very well in the social sciences, which requires instead eclectic theories, piecemeal explanations, and a patchwork of inquiries at a range of levels of description.

#sociology

https://undsoc.org/2024/01/31/defining-disciplinary-research-in-the-social-sciences/

Mistakes by organizationsEveryone makes mistakes ... but do organizations make mistakes in the same way that individuals do? No --...

Mistakes by organizations

Everyone makes mistakes ... but do organizations make mistakes in the same way that individuals do? No -- organizational mistakes are most often the result of dysfunctions such as principal-agent problems, conflicting cognitive frameworks, conflicting local priorities, external pressures on decision makers, poor communication and information-sharing. Orgs are not unified intentional actors ...

#sociology

https://undsoc.org/2023/12/18/mistakes-by-organizations/

Brecht on Galileo on scienceBertolt Brecht's play *The Life of Galileo* expresses a powerful critique of the role played by scientists...

Brecht on Galileo on science

Bertolt Brecht's play *The Life of Galileo* expresses a powerful critique of the role played by scientists in a class society. His Galileo expresses self-contempt for the fact that "science" is the companion to "class oppression", and that his own career facilitated that alliance. "I handed my knowledge to those in power for them to use, fail to use, misuse — whatever best suited their objectives."

https://undsoc.org/2023/11/02/brecht-on-galileo-on-science/

Thinking about social classAre Marx's theories about the nature and importance of social class still insightful? They are, at many...

Thinking about social class

Are Marx's theories about the nature and importance of social class still insightful? They are, at many levels: exploitation, inequality, ideology, political behavior, influence on policy, sources of collective action, ...

https://undsoc.org/2023/10/31/thinking-about-social-class/

George Orwell on historical truthOrwell spends a lot of time in his writings on the question of truth and lies in politics. One important...

George Orwell on historical truth

Orwell spends a lot of time in his writings on the question of truth and lies in politics. One important source of his convictions on this subject derives from his experience in the Spanish Civil War. This post considers his own experience of the street fighting in Barcelona (May 1937) and the radical lies told about this event by the Communist press and the Spanish government at the time.

#history

https://undsoc.org/2023/09/20/orwell-on-historical-truth/

An absolutist Socrates?Socrates is often revered as a founder of western philosophy. But some of his views are strikingly at odds with our...

An absolutist Socrates?

Socrates is often revered as a founder of western philosophy. But some of his views are strikingly at odds with our contemporary ideas of freedom. In particular, he seems to have a deeply absolutist conception of the state's authority as expressed in the Platonic dialogue Crito ...

#philosophy

https://undsoc.org/2023/09/13/an-absolutist-socrates/

A horrendous massacre in Tamil Nadu, 1968Massacre of 44 dalit people in 1968 in Tamil Nadu illustrated the workings of oppression involving...

A horrendous massacre in Tamil Nadu, 1968

Massacre of 44 dalit people in 1968 in Tamil Nadu illustrated the workings of oppression involving both caste and class. Landless worker victims were dalit, and poorest of the poor. Land owners could resist increases in wages, through structural advantage within the property system and their coercive power (their ability to call upon armed thugs to carry out violence against dalit protests). Attackers went free.

#atrocity

https://undsoc.org/2023/09/04/a-horrendous-massacre-in-tamil-nadu-1968/

Moses Finley's persecution by McCarthyismMI Finley, a highly innovative 20th-century historian of the ancient world, was victim of...

Moses Finley's persecution by McCarthyism

MI Finley, a highly innovative 20th-century historian of the ancient world, was victim of McCarthyism and forced to leave the US to spend his academic career in Britain. After being denounced as a member of the Communist Party by Karl Wittfogel, he refused to answer questions to a McCarthy-era "loyalty" committee in the US Senate. He was subsequently fired from his academic position at Rutgers in 1953. It was a common story.

https://undsoc.org/2023/08/31/moses-finleys-persecution-by-mccarthyism/

Memory and culture in post-1989 central EuropeTill Hilmar’s *Divided* is a study of social memory of the period following collapse of...

Memory and culture in post-1989 central Europe

Till Hilmar’s *Divided* is a study of social memory of the period following collapse of socialist states in 1989. It provides an insightful analysis of how judgments of justice and legitimacy exist as systems of interpretation of experience for different groups. “Moral framework” sets the schema for memory. The book is original and consistently insightful.

#sociology

https://undsoc.org/2023/08/20/memory-and-culture-after-1989-in-central-europe/

Are organizations emergent? A fairly ordinary idea is argued here: that organizations have properties that are *emergent* from the behaviors...

Are organizations emergent?

A fairly ordinary idea is argued here: that organizations have properties that are *emergent* from the behaviors and intentions of the actors who constitute the organization, and that these emergent properties sometimes exercise independent causal influence over the workings of the institution over time and across personnel change. This provides examples of meso-meso and meso-micro causal influence.

#ontology #philosophy #safety

https://undsoc.org/2023/08/15/are-organizations-emergent/

Marxism and British historiographyA quick discussion of the question of how and whether it was possible for the British Marxist historians...

Marxism and British historiography

A quick discussion of the question of how and whether it was possible for the British Marxist historians to maintain historical integrity while also adhering to membership in the British Communist Party. Harvey Kaye's British Marxist Historians provides insights ...

#history

https://undsoc.org/2023/08/14/marxism-and-british-historiography/

A curious convergence between social ontology and process metaphysicsProcess metaphysics offers a good description of the nature of the...

A curious convergence between social ontology and process metaphysics

Process metaphysics offers a good description of the nature of the social world, even if not a credible general theory. This suggests that philosophy should be modest in the generality of its theories. No “general and universal” basis for philosophical metaphysics; instead, different metaphysical frameworks for different areas of knowledge and experience. “Metaphysics naturalized”.

#philosophy

https://undsoc.org/2023/08/04/a-curious-convergence-between-social-ontology-and-process-metaphysics/

A new course on the terrible twentieth century... A new course I've developed for the fall on the catastrophes and suffering of the...

A new course on the terrible twentieth century

... A new course I've developed for the fall on the catastrophes and suffering of the twentieth century. It is aimed at giving students a fairly immediate and experiential awareness of the realities of fascism, racism, genocide, totalitarian dictatorship, the Holocaust, and the Holodomor. Authors include Orwell, Koestler, Grossman, Ramachandran, Shalamov, Steinbeck, and Langston Hughes.

#genocide #racism #fascism

https://undsoc.org/2023/07/30/a-new-course-on-the-terrible-twentieth-century/

The generation of the Freedom RidersSome thoughts about the Freedom Riders in 1961, reflecting on the passing of Catherine Burks-Brooks, and...

The generation of the Freedom Riders

Some thoughts about the Freedom Riders in 1961, reflecting on the passing of Catherine Burks-Brooks, and the distance our country still needs to go to achieve racial justice.

And a comment about persisting racial disparities in Florida, in case Governor DeSantis wants to actually address an important issue rather than Mickey Mouse.

#racism #socialmovements
#freedomriders

https://undsoc.org/2023/07/24/the-generation-of-the-freedom-riders/

Regulatory failure in freight rail trafficA discussion of an important symptom of "regulatory capture" in the freight rail...

Regulatory failure in freight rail traffic

A discussion of an important symptom of "regulatory capture" in the freight rail industry -- the persistent reality of blocked rail crossings. Recent stories in the New York Times and the Washington Post document the consequences for ordinary people, often poor and often black, sometimes leading to serious outcomes for people trapped in their neighborhoods ...

#safety

https://undsoc.org/2023/07/22/regulatory-failure-in-freight-rail-traffic/