Understanding Society

Victor Lieberman uses the phrase, "strange parallels," as the title for his two-volume study of Southeast Asian history ( Strange ...

A central theme of many of the posts here is the contingency, heterogeneity, and path dependency of social processes. I used the metaphor o...

Throughout much of our social experience we expect continuity : tomorrow will be pretty similar to today, and when changes occur they will b...

A system is in equilibrium with respect to a given characteristic when there is a system of forces in play that push the system back to the ...

Are there turning points in history? How would we know if we're in the midst of one? Does the current financial crisis represent a turn...

Quite a few postings here emphasize the limits of social science knowledge. Prediction of the behavior of large social wholes is difficult t...

The near meltdown of the US financial system this week came as a surprise to most of us -- experts, legislators, and citizens alike. That is...

We've looked at power as the socially embodied ability of some people to compel the behavior of other people. But this isn't the wh...

The most visible exercise of power involves the direct use of force or the threat of violence. Demonstrators are cleared from the streets by...

The social sciences are charged to arrive at a good empirical understanding of the social world around us. They are charged to provide hypot...