Politics of Method in the Human Sciences

634 pages

English

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634 pages

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The Politics of Method in the Human Sciences provides a remarkable comparative assessment of the variations of positivism and alternative epistemologies in the contemporary human sciences. Often declared obsolete, positivism is alive and well in a number of the fields; in others, its influence is significantly diminished. The essays in this collection investigate its mutations in form and degree across the social science disciplines. Looking at methodological assumptions field by field, individual essays address anthropology, area studies, economics, history, the philosophy of science, political science and political theory, and sociology. Essayists trace disciplinary developments through the long twentieth century, focusing on the decades since World War II.Contributors explore and contrast some of the major alternatives to positivist epistemologies, including Marxism, psychoanalysis, poststructuralism, narrative theory, and actor-network theory. Almost all the essays are written by well-known practitioners of the fields discussed. Some essayists approach positivism and anti-positivism via close readings of texts influential in their respective disciplines. Some engage in ethnographies of the present-day human sciences; others are more historical in method. All of them critique contemporary social scientific practice. Together, they trace a trajectory of thought and method running from the past through the present and pointing toward possible futures.Contributors. Andrew Abbott, Daniel Breslau, Michael Burawoy, Andrew Collier , Michael Dutton, Geoff Eley, Anthony Elliott, Stephen Engelmann, Sandra Harding, Emily Hauptmann, Webb Keane, Tony Lawson, Sophia Mihic, Philip Mirowski, Timothy Mitchell, William H. Sewell Jr., Margaret R. Somers, George Steinmetz, Elizabeth Wingrove

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Sociologie, société et politique

Sociology

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Publié par	Duke University Press
Date de parution	16 mai 2005
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780822386889
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,1848€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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the politics of method in the human sciences

p o l i t i c s , h i s t o ry a n d c u lt u r e

A series from the International Institute at the University of Michigan Series Editors: George Steinmetz and Julia Adams Series Editorial Advisory Board: Fernando Coronil Mamadou Diouf, Michael Dutton, Geo√ Eley, Fatma Müge Göcek, Nancy Rose Hunt, Andreas Kalyvas, Webb Keane, David Laitin, Lydia Liu, Julie Skurski, Margaret Somers, Ann Laura Stoler, Katherine Verdery, Elizabeth Wingrove

Sponsored by the International Institute at the Uni-versity of Michigan and published by Duke University Press, this series is centered around cultural and his-torical studies of power, politics, and the state— and the ﬁeld that cuts across the disciplines of history, so-ciology, anthropology, political science, and cultural studies. The focus on the relationship between state and culture refers both to a methodological approach — the study of politics and the state using culturalist methods— and as a substantive one that treats signify-ing practices as an essential dimension of politics. The dialectic of politics, culture, and history ﬁgures prom-inently in all the books selected for the series.

THE POLITICS OF METHOD IN

THE HUMAN SCIENCES

Positivism and Its Epistemological Others

george steinmetz, editor

Duke University Press

Durham/London 2005

∫2005 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper$ Typeset in Minion by Keystone Typesetting, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book.

Portions of Webb Keane’s essay originally appeared in ‘‘Self-Interpretation, Agency, and the Objects of Anthropology: Reﬂections on a Genealogy,’’Com-parative Studies in Society and History 45, 2 (2003). Reprinted with the permission of Cambridge Uni-versity Press.

Michael Dutton’s essay originally appeared inNe-pantla3, 3 (2002). Copyright Duke University Press.

Portions of William Sewell’s essay originally ap-peared in ‘‘Whatever Happened to the ‘Social’ in Social History,’’ inSchools of Thought: Twenty-Five Years of Interpretive Social Science, edited by Joan W. Scott and Deborah Keates. Copyright Princeton University Press, 2001.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

introduction1 Positivism and Its Others in the Social Sciences George Steinmetz

part one.Positivism and Nonpositivism in Twentieth-Century Social Science

anthropology59 Estrangement, Intimacy, and the Objects of Anthropology Webb Keane

area studies / asian studies89 The Trick of Words: Asian Studies, Translation, and the Problems of Knowledge Michael Dutton

economics126 Economists and the Economy in the Twentieth Century Timothy Mitchell

economics / philosophy of science142 How Positivism Made a Pact with the Postwar Social Sciences in the United States Philip Mirowski

history173 The Political Unconscious of Social and Cultural History, or, Confessions of a Former Quantitative Historian William H. Sewell Jr.

political science / political theory207 Deﬁning ‘‘Theory’’ in Postwar Political Science Emily Hauptmann

sociology and economics233 Beware Trojan Horses Bearing Social Capital: How Privatization TurnedSolidarityinto a Bowling Team Margaret R. Somers

sociology275 Scientiﬁc Authority and the Transition to Post-Fordism: The Plausibility of Positivism in U.S. Sociology since 1945 George Steinmetz

part two.Alternatives to Positivism in the Human Sciences

philosophy and critical realism Critical Realism Andrew Collier

327

philosophy and standpoint theory346 Negotiating with the Positivist Legacy: New Social Justice Movements and a Standpoint Politics of Method Sandra Harding

economics and critical realism366 A Perspective on Modern Economics Tony Lawson

process and temporality in sociology The Idea of Outcome in U.S. Sociology Andrew Abbott

393

psychoanalysis as critique427 Psychoanalysis and the Theory of the Subject Anthony Elliott

sociology of science451 The Real and the Imaginary in Economic Methodology Daniel Breslau

making sense in and of political science Facts, Values, and ‘‘Real’’ Numbers Sophia Mihic, Stephen G. Engelmann, and Elizabeth Rose Wingrove

being undisciplined496 On Your Marx: From Cultural History to the History of Society Geo√ Eley

conclusion508 Provincializing the Social Sciences Michael Burawoy

References

Contributors

Index

527

587

Citation Index

583

607

470

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

arlier versions of some of the papers in this volume were presented at sessions of the Social Science History Association and American So-E ciological Association. The Wilder House at the University of Chi-cago, under the direction of Bill Sewell and Lisa Wedeen, sponsored a miniconference in 2001 at which drafts of many of the papers in this volume were discussed. Beth Buggenhagen helped organize that confer-ence, and Moishe Postone served as discussant. I especially wish to thank my editor Raphael Allen, who attended the 2001 Chicago conference and who has been instrumental in shaping this book and guiding it through its various stages of development. Webb Keane and Dan Breslau helped with the book’s title. Thanks to Rick Smoke for technical support. Andy Clarno helped with the bibliography. Claire Decoteau did a tremendous job reﬁn-ing the manuscript at the copyediting stage. Above all, I want to thank Julia Hell. More than anyone else, she de-serves credit for helping to deprogram me each time I have been hit by scientistic broadsides or urged more subtly to respect the entrenched epistemic dogmas of sociology.

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