Comments for The Sociological Imagination

Comment on Habermas, Communicative Action, and Empirical Research by edavismail

edavismail — Mon, 14 May 2012 03:09:52 +0000

Despite his occassional fetishization of successful communication, it takes a tremendous investment to understand Habermas. He’s not for everyone, but then I’ve always had a systematic and philosophical inclination, as well as a penchant for addressing methods and the bigger picture. While I’m not sure I’m ready to call myself an expert, I am ready to claim that nearly every moment of investment in Habermas has been worth it–with the major exceptions of his “Legitimation Crisis” (probably one of his most “empirically” leaning works, yet complete and utter crap as far as I’m concerned) and some of his treatments of Hegel (it’s Hegel, ‘nough said). Most of the background reading for Habermas has concerned people and issues that I would want to eventually address anyway. In any case, I’ve learned a tremendous amount along the way. The Theory of Communicative Action is an awesome work and remains so despite the time lapse since its original publication. I’m still working my way through Between Facts and Norms. Habermas may not often provide concrete examples, but he values a high degree of clarity–which is quite an achievement for someone who worked closely with Adorno, let alone someone who emerged from the Frankfurt School in general. It would be silly for a Habermasian to get too giddy about quatitative research methods, since so many of the methods taken on by Habermas were embraced precisely because they provided qualitative insight where increasing formalization and mathematization had a blinding influence. Habermas does not at any point make a facile embrace of rational choice theory. He’s exercising another ideal type. Bless him for that. Still, I’ve seen, for example, empirical research insipired by Habermas within the field of public choice.

Comment on Hayek and Habermas: Part I by edavismail

edavismail — Mon, 14 May 2012 02:30:33 +0000

Excellent post. I appreciate your close reading of the sources, and though those by Habermas are a bit dated, they still are relevant. I remember being excited by Habermas’s mention of Menger in the LSS, but then being equally perplexed by his association between Menger and mathematical economics. It was probably a superficial conclusion on Habermas’s part because Menger is typically associated with marginal utility theory, which is typically represented by formal mathematical models. I thought for a second that maybe Habermas’s system/lifeworld distinction, which has a primitive form in the LSS in terms of the interpretive vs functional approaches, might have been inspired by Menger’s distinction between “pragmatic” (interpretive/lifeworldly) and “organic” (functional/systemic) social structures. However, it seems clear that Habermas did not likely read Menger closely enough to glean such insight.

Comment on Compiling a Political Sociology Reading List by Brent Cooper

Brent Cooper — Mon, 07 May 2012 23:30:50 +0000

I’d like to add “The New Political Sociology” (Taylor), which I used as a core of my Masters dissertation. – Brent Cooper, LSE 2011

Comment on The Evolution of Labor History by seo services

seo services — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:44:05 +0000

This blog kind of exploded into a great resource if anyone was ever looking for a different horror movie to rent, the comments are full of them.

Comment on Hayek and Polanyi on Economy/Society by The road to serfdom by Hayek

The road to serfdom by Hayek — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:03:35 +0000

[...] Hayek and Polanyi on Economy/Society (thesociologicalimagination.com) [...]

Comment on Ostrom in Boston by Odds and Enders for Feb. 22 « Who Plans Whom?

Odds and Enders for Feb. 22 « Who Plans Whom? — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 14:23:49 +0000

[...] having to use the power of the state, individuals find an ingenious solution to the parking problem in downtown Boston. It’s just another example of what F.A. Hayek [...]

Comment on In Defense of Todd Henderson by Sherryl Skobiak

Sherryl Skobiak — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 09:24:48 +0000

A interesting post right there mate ! Thank you for the post !

Comment on Economists and the State by Elida

Elida — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 06:06:23 +0000

Awesome you shulod think of something like that

Comment on Carthago delenda est by Linda

Linda — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:56:19 +0000

That’s a well-thoguht-out answer to a challenging question

Comment on New Issue of Society Online by the pilatesbiz

the pilatesbiz — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:15:28 +0000

1932 DR JEKYLL & MR HYDE. Ive screened it for students any number of times, and it always freaks em out.