Structures of Power and Constraint: Papers in Honor of Peter M. Blau

by Edited by Craig Calhoun , Marshall W. Meyer , W. Richard Scott

• ISBN13: 9780521113168
• ISBN10: 0521113164
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-06-18
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Are social structures products of human action, expressions of individual or group power? Or are they essentially external constraints on human action, necessarily analyzed at a different level? How are themes of power and constraint to be joined in a common analytic approach? These have long been central questions for sociologists. since the collapse of functionalism as a unifying paradigm, however they have often appeared as the basis for sharp divisions between competing analytic paradigms. The divide between structuralism and rational-choice theory has been one of the most prominent such splits. Yet each approach has undergone a revival in past years. The editors of this book, in honour of Peter Blau, brought together a wide range of distinguished sociologists who have taken positions on different sides of this issue and brings them into focus as parts of a common discourse on the place of social structure and concepts of strategic action in sociological explanation.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Epistolary notes

Exchange, Power and Inequality

Rational-choice theory and behavioral psychology

Rational action, social networks and the emergence of norms

Linking actors and structures: an exchange network perspective

Models of social and market exchange: toward a sociological theory of games and social behavior

Family and birth-order effects on educational attainment Otis

Formal Organization

The Weberian tradition in organizational research

Structural inconsistency and management strategy in organizations Stanley

Organizational demography and structural change in the Roman Catholic church Richard Schoenherr

The technocratic organization of academic work

The organizational and structural context of employee assistance programs

Penetrating differentiation: linking macro and micro phenomena

Social structure and intermarriage: a reanalysis

Network diversity, substructures and opportunities for contact

Kinds of relations in American discussion networks

Social control and social networks: a model from Georg Simmel

Bibliography of the writings of Peter M. Blau

Index

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