Stručni rad
Field, network and agency: on the possibility of an epistemological and methodological convergence between Bourdieu’s field concept, the social network approach and analytical sociology
Marko Lucić
orcid.org/0000-0002-5969-3388
; Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
The paper attempts to examine the possibility of merging three declaratively separated, rather popular research programs and/or theoretical orientations: “relational sociology” i.e. the social network approach (H.C. White, J.W. Mohr and R. Breiger) originating in the theory of structuration (A.Giddens), analytical sociology based on the economic methodological individualism (J. Coleman) and the special structural approach of P. Bourdieu. We start from Bourdieu’s field concept, which we consider equally comparable across the two former programs, in spite of the fact that Bourdieu’s sociology considerably differs from both of them by its structural-deterministic profile. This paper will try to demonstrate that the differences between the three orientations amount “merely” to different stress priorities in interpreting similar empirical data, and are not due to incompatible theoretical or methodological frameworks, even if these orientations remain at war in the field of sociological knowledge production. We single out the micro-macro link and the conceptualization of the meaning of social interactions as the main points of epistemological divergence. Subsequently we consider the possibility of convergence by going “backwards” from the examples of empirical research, methods and forms of quantitative analysis associated with specific research programs towards their epistemological foundations. Based on the former discussion we attribute the social network approach the largest “potential for convergence”, and in the end we consider the perspective of finding a unique theoretical and methodological apparatus which would transcend the boundaries of frequently antagonistic epistemological foundations in the social sciences (above all those rooted in economics and those rooted in sociology)
Ključne riječi
analytical sociology; social network analysis; James Coleman; micro-macro link; multivariate methods; field; Pierre Bourdieu
Hrčak ID:
105810
URI
Datum izdavanja:
1.5.2013.
Posjeta: 2.299 *