Figurational Sociology
Encyclopedia
Figurational sociology is a research tradition in which figurations of humans - evolving networks
of interdependent humans - are the unit of investigation. Although more a methodological
stance than a determinate school
of practice, the tradition has one essential feature:
Practitioners may be said to be inspired by the ideal that the usual humanities
barrier between micro (eg psychological) and macro (eg state organization) is removed, and their causal links opened to examination. As a consequence, much of the work done in the name of this approach has examined the connection between changes in psychology and personhood, on the one hand, and changes in macro social structures on the other.
Norbert Elias
is usually acknowledged as an early or primary practitioner, as a consequence of his ground-breaking 1939 work, The Civilizing Process
.
Social network
A social network is a social structure made up of individuals called "nodes", which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.Social...
of interdependent humans - are the unit of investigation. Although more a methodological
Methodology
Methodology is generally a guideline for solving a problem, with specificcomponents such as phases, tasks, methods, techniques and tools . It can be defined also as follows:...
stance than a determinate school
School
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
of practice, the tradition has one essential feature:
- Concern for process, not state. Figurational sociology is also referred to as process sociology. This feature is an attempt to correct for an in-built language prejudicePrejudicePrejudice is making a judgment or assumption about someone or something before having enough knowledge to be able to do so with guaranteed accuracy, or "judging a book by its cover"...
which tilts theory to reduceReductionismReductionism can mean either an approach to understanding the nature of complex things by reducing them to the interactions of their parts, or to simpler or more fundamental things or a philosophical position that a complex system is nothing but the sum of its parts, and that an account of it can...
processes into static elements, separating, for example, human actors from their actions. Just as linguists rely on etymologyEtymologyEtymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
to gain a rich understanding of a word's history, which may help to understand its later uses, figurational sociologists attempt to look at the process of a social feature's emergence and evolution to gain a fuller understanding of its function in the present.
Practitioners may be said to be inspired by the ideal that the usual humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
barrier between micro (eg psychological) and macro (eg state organization) is removed, and their causal links opened to examination. As a consequence, much of the work done in the name of this approach has examined the connection between changes in psychology and personhood, on the one hand, and changes in macro social structures on the other.
Norbert Elias
Norbert Elias
Norbert Elias was a German sociologist of Jewish descent, who later became a British citizen.-Biography:...
is usually acknowledged as an early or primary practitioner, as a consequence of his ground-breaking 1939 work, The Civilizing Process
The Civilizing Process
The book The Civilizing Process written by German sociologist Norbert Elias is an influential work in sociology and Elias' most important work. It was first published in 1939 in German as Über den Prozeß der Zivilisation. Because of the World War it was virtually ignored, but republished in the...
.
External links
- Morrow, Raymond (May 2009). "Norbert Elias and Figurational Sociology: The Comeback of the Century", Contemporary SociologyContemporary SociologyContemporary Sociology is an academic journal in the field of sociology, published bimonthly by Sage Publications on behalf of the American Sociological Association since 1972. Contemporary Sociology publishes reviews and discussions of the most important recent works in sociology and in related...
38 (3): 215–219. (PDF-File; 174 KB)