Thomas J Fararo
Biographic Data
| ID | 3630701 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Thomas J Fararo |
| GIVEN NAMES | Thomas J |
| FAMILY NAME | Fararo |
| SIGNATURE | FARARO T J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Pittsburgh |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 74 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 342 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 73 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1963 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Rational Choice Theory (and Economic Sociology)
The tradition of sociological analysis includes two inter‐related major themes that relate to economics. One theme pertains to economy and society, with the emergent principle of embeddedness in the sense that economic transactions are embedded in an institutional environment and actors in economic roles are embedded in social networks. The other theme concerns the relationship between the theoretical approaches of the two disciplines, sociology …
Homans, George (1910–1989)
George Caspar Homans was a major theoretical sociologist whose lucid writings helped to shape numerous developments in basic sociological research. His ideas about theoretical principles in sociology were much debated and often rejected. His undergraduate years from 1928 to 1932 were at Harvard College, where his area of concentration was English and American literature; he also took a variety of courses in other disciplines, but not sociology. H…
Mathematical Sociology
After World War II, some sociologists began to employ mathematical models as part of a deepening and broadening of the interpenetration of mathematics and the social and behavioral sciences. These applications were quite different from traditional data analysis, where statistical procedures are the main tools. The idea was to create more rigorous scientific theories than had hitherto existed in these fields. For instance, theories in fields such …
Economy: Sociological Approach
The general problem of how to conceptualize and explain the relations of the economy to wider contexts of human behavior has been one of the main themes of major theorists in the sociological tradition. In the classical phase of sociological thought, Marx, Weber, and Durkheim each treated the problem. In the writings of Marx, what has been called the base–superstructure model rests upon the concept of a mode of production that includes social rel…
Status and Interaction: A Stochastic Model for the Measurement of Macro-status Value and the Determination of Micro-status Ranking in Task Group Interaction
Status inequality is a matter both of the distribution of persons to status positions (men and women, highly educated and poorly educated, young and old) and of the value of those positions relative to one another. The authors' work focuses on the second issue. The authors propose a stochastic model for how status value can be measured on a ratio scale from data on how occupancy of macro-status positions influences the micro-status orderings of a…
Analytical Sociology and Social Mechanisms
Mechanisms are very much a part of social life. For example, we can see that inequality has tended to increase over time, and that cities can become segregated. But how do such mechanisms work? Analytical sociology is an influential approach to sociology which holds that explanations of social phenomena should focus on the social mechanisms that bring them about. This book evaluates the major features of this approach, focusing on the significanc…
Rational Choice Theory (and Economic Sociology)
Two major themes are part of the tradition of sociological analysis as it relates to economics. One theme concerns the sociology of economic phenomena, while the other concerns the relationship between economic theory and sociological theory. The first theme is the central focus of economic sociology, and the second has been a central focus of sociological theory in its phases of development. The two themes are closely connected. In recent decade…
Mathematical Sociology
After World War II, some sociologists began to employ mathematical models as part of a deepening and broadening of the interpenetration of mathematics and the social and behavioral sciences. These applications were quite different from traditional data analysis wherein statistical procedures are the main tools. The idea was to create more rigorous scientific theories than had hitherto existed in these fields. Traditionally, for instance, theories…
Postpositivism
In the twentieth century the heritage of positivism as a philosophy of science underwent major changes. Earlier intellectual developments in the century led to logical positivism (and, with some variation in ideas, logical empiricism). The continuity with classical positivism was maintained in terms of opposition to metaphysics, but other and more specific doctrines were elaborated. A scientific theory, for instance, was said to be a formal deduc…
Streetwise: How Taxi Drivers Establish Their Customers' Trustworthiness Diego Gambetta and Heather Hamill Russell Sage Foundation, 2005. 243 pages. $39.95 (cloth), $19.95 (paper)
Journal Article Streetwise: How Taxi Drivers Establish Their Customers' Trustworthiness Diego Gambetta and Heather Hamill Russell Sage Foundation, 2005. 243 pages. $39.95 (cloth), $19.95 (paper) Get access Thomas J. Fararo Thomas J. Fararo University of Pittsburgh Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Social Forces, Volume 86, Issue 1, September 2007, Pages 363–364, https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.2007.0097 Publishe…
Homans, George (1910–89)
George Caspar Homans was a major theoretical sociologist whose lucid writings helped to shape numerous developments in basic sociological research. His ideas about theoretical principles in sociology were much debated and often rejected
Economy (Sociological Approach)
The general problem of how to conceptualize and explain the relations of the economy to wider contexts of human behavior has been one of the main themes of major theorists in the sociological tradition. In the classical phase of the tradition, Marx, Weber, and Durkheim each treated the problem. In the writings of Marx, what has been called the basis–superstructure model rests upon the concept of a mode of production that includes social relations…
Talcott Parsons: Economic Sociologist of the 20th Century
Purpose, meaning, and action: Control Systems Theories in Sociology
Introduction: Sociologists as Control-Systems Theorists T.J.Fararo & K.A.McClelland Introduction to Affect Control Theory C.A.Francis Sentiment Formation in Social Interaction D.R.Heise The Affect Control Theory of Emotions: The Case of Depression N.J.MacKinnon & M.Goulbourne The Interrelationships among Identity, Action, and Emotion L.Smith-Lovin & D.Robinson Guilty Americans and Shameful Japanese? An Affect Control Test of Benedict's Thesis H.W…
Über die Grundlagen der Handlungstheorie: Vier Imperative
Advances in biased net theory: Definitions, derivations, and estimations
Generating Images of Stratification: A Formal Theory
Social Action Systems: Foundation and Synthesis in Sociological Theory
Preface General Theoretical Sociology in Context Process and Social Reality Classical Foundations Foundations of Analytical Realism Two Postclassical Paths of Synthesis The Structural Analysis of Social Action Systems The Analytical Theory of Social Systems A Structural-Functional Theory of Social Systems The Four-Function Paradigm: The Social System Model The Four-Function Paradigm: The General Action System Model The Behavioral Theory of Sponta…
Choosing an Identity: A General Model of Preference and Belief Formation
Problems of Form
CONTENTS BAECKER DIRK LUHMANN NIKLAS ROBERTS DAVID LUHMANN NIKLAS SCHORR KARL EBERHARD ESPOSITO ELENA BAECKER DIRK HUTTER MICHAEL STICHWEH RUDOLF WILLKE HELMUT JAPP KLAUS P. CORSI GIANCARLO SIMON FRITZ B
Social Action Systems: Foundation and Synthesis in Sociological Theory
Cognitive Value Commitments in Formal Theoretical Sociology
This paper aims to communicate some of the value commitments that characterize my approach to formal model building in theoretical sociology. It does this through a narrative method, an autobiographical account of shifts in intellectual interests through various phases of my career: from history to philosophy, from philosophy to sociology, from sociology to mathematics and back, followed by several long-term formal theoretical research programs. …
Advances in generative structuralism: Structured agency and multilevel dynamics
We set out an approach to theorizing termed generative structuralism. In two stages, respectively, we address two problems in social theory ‐ agency‐structure and micro‐macro linkage ‐ in relation to a central problem in the discipline, namely, the sense of its fragmentation. The first theoretical problem is: How can we create generative models and methods that are responsive to the interpenetration of agency and structure in social practices? We…
The problem of solidarity: Theories and Models
The human difference: Animals, computers, and the necessity of social science
The human difference: Animals, computers, and the necessity of social science." History of European Ideas, 22(2), pp. 158–159
Max Weber's comparative-historical sociology
Status and Participation in Task Groups: A Dynamic Network Model
This article presents a dynamic model for the formation of status orders in small task groups whose members may be differnetiated by a diffuse status characteristic. This theoretical strategy embodies " E-state structuralism," wich unites the social psychological formalism of expectation states theory with social network research. Using the development of status hierarchies via differential participation in group discussion, the formal model synt…
E-State Structuralism: A Theoretical Method
This paper unifies two strands of theoretical method in sociology. On the one hand, the structuralist or network program of research involves the fundamental rule that basic data and analytic procedures of sociology must focus on social relations. This leads to theories about structural stabililty or change, for example, although the network approach generally has been stronger on technique than on explanatory theory. An interest in theoretical e…
Institutions as production systems
This paper proposes a formal mode of representation and a corresponding way of thinking about institutionalized social action. It draws its representational technique and its way of thinking about its subject from several sources, including systems theory, cognitive science, and structuralism. It is based on the idea that a model involves a proposed generative mechanism for observable patterns of action and that such a generator must be a system …
Unification Research Programs: Integrating Two Structural Theories
The synthesis of discrete theories and principles to generate ever more comprehensive and unified general theory is fundamental to theoretical science. This paper, after introducing the authors' conception of what such a process involves, combines two structural theories: Blau's macrosociological, social differentiation theory and Granovetter's strength-of-weak-ties principle. Each was previously formalized within a common biased-net mathematical…
Locating Leaders in Local Communities: A Comparison of Some Alternative Approaches
Equally important are the linkages which the models provide between theories at varying levels of abstraction, linkages which could be only briefly alluded to in this paper.38 The models allow one to trace the connection between specific human groupings and the place they occupy in more general sociological theory, whether that place is formal organizational theory, on the one hand, or urban and rural sociology on the other. Finally, with the qua…
General Social Equilibrium: Toward Theoretical Synthesis
The resurgence of rational choice theory in sociology has given rise to a debate about its scope and limits. This paper approaches the debate in a constructive spirit. Taking Coleman's recent work as exemplary of rational choice theory in sociology, the discussion begins by noticing some elements common to this theory and to the framework employed by neofunctionalist critics of rational choice theory. First, the concept of control plays a central…
Advances in generative structuralism: Structured agency and multilevel dynamics
We set out an approach to theorizing termed generative structuralism. In two stages, respectively, we address two problems in social theory ‐ agency‐structure and micro‐macro linkage ‐ in relation to a central problem in the discipline, namely, the sense of its fragmentation. The first theoretical problem is: How can we create generative models and methods that are responsive to the interpenetration of agency and structure in social practices? We…
The emergence of computational sociology
The world of science has undergone a major transformation by virtue of technological innovations in computing and information proessing. Sociology is one site in which this change is being played out. Our basic aim is to set out a revised image of any modern science, within which we can conceptualize and discuss the role of a newly emergent subfield we term computational sociology. Specifically, we expand the familiar two‐component model of a sci…
The Spirit of Unification in Sociological Theory
The Growth of Sociological Theories
Introduction What is a Theory? Theoretical Context Theoretical Context and Theory Growth Theoretical Research Programs The Social Context of Theory Growth Toward A Theory of Theory Growth Conclusions
Neoclassical theorizing and formalization in sociology
Social structure, networks, and E‐state structuralism models
The method of E‐state structuralism provides dynamic models for the evolution and development of networks in small groups. Our interest lies in the kind of social networks that these models produce. We ask the question of whether such models produce “interesting” structure from a network point‐of‐view, in particular, from the perspective of Holland and Leinhardt who argue that any network that can be modeled adequately using only properties of no…
A Mathematical Theory of Social Change
Assessing hierarchy and balance in dynamic network models
This paper discusses two algorithms that compute important structural properties of dynamic social networks. The properties are hierarchy in a directed graph, and balance at a node in a signed directed graph. The hierarchy algorithm is used in a model that generates dominance structures in groups. The balance algorithm is part of a model that generates deviant behavior in a group. Both algorithms work with a dynamic network data structure that ch…
Action and institution, network and function: The cybernetic concept of social structure
Mathematical Sociology: An Introduction to Fundamentals
Stochastic Processes
Status and Interaction: A Stochastic Model for the Measurement of Macro-status Value and the Determination of Micro-status Ranking in Task Group Interaction
Status inequality is a matter both of the distribution of persons to status positions (men and women, highly educated and poorly educated, young and old) and of the value of those positions relative to one another. The authors' work focuses on the second issue. The authors propose a stochastic model for how status value can be measured on a ratio scale from data on how occupancy of macro-status positions influences the micro-status orderings of a…
Action structures and sociological action theory
Three research traditions that have developed formal representations of action structures are presented in the first part of this paper and preliminary attempts are made to unify them. These three efforts differ more or less substantially in focus: affect control (Heise 1979; 1985), institutionalized social action (Fararo and Skvoretz 1984; 1986) and action feasibility (Nowakowska 1973). In the second part of the paper, we attempt to place these …
Generating Symbolic Interaction: Production System Models
Production systems are ordered sets of if-then rules linking knowledge and action. The authors show how these systems, developed and applied in artificial intelligence and cognitive science, can be used to construct empirically based symbolic interactionist models of situated human interaction. The authors argue that production system models enhance the conceptual clarity and formal analytic capabilities of key ideas in Herbert Blumer's methodolo…
The Meaning of General Theoretical Sociology: Tradition and Formalization
Luce's Axiom and occupational prestige: Test of a measurement model
This paper reports research using a psychological theory, R. D. Luce's (1959) individual choice theory, to provide a ratio‐level measurement basis for an important sociological variable, occupational prestige. It is shown that earlier measurement procedures to scale this sociological variable are essentially arbitrary, although heuristically useful. Luce's Axiom of Choice and his Ranking Postulate are then tested on choice sets of occupations whe…
Cognitive Value Commitments in Formal Theoretical Sociology
This paper aims to communicate some of the value commitments that characterize my approach to formal model building in theoretical sociology. It does this through a narrative method, an autobiographical account of shifts in intellectual interests through various phases of my career: from history to philosophy, from philosophy to sociology, from sociology to mathematics and back, followed by several long-term formal theoretical research programs. …
Rational Choice Theory: Advocacy and Critique
Introduction - James S Coleman and Thomas J Farraro PART ONE: THEMES OF ADVOCACY The Method of Decreasing Abstraction - Siegwart Lindenberg The Role of Models of Purposive Action in Sociology - Margaret Marini Rational Choice as a Principle - David Willer The Case of Elementary Theory The Attainment of Global Order in Heterogeneous Societies - Michael Hechter, Debra Friedman and Satoshi Kanazawa PART TWO: CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES Rationality and Emo…
Locating Leaders in Local Communities: A Comparison of Some Alternative Approaches
Equally important are the linkages which the models provide between theories at varying levels of abstraction, linkages which could be only briefly alluded to in this paper.38 The models allow one to trace the connection between specific human groupings and the place they occupy in more general sociological theory, whether that place is formal organizational theory, on the one hand, or urban and rural sociology on the other. Finally, with the qua…
Suburban Power Structures and Public Education: A Study of Values, Influence, and Tax Effort
Stochastic Processes
Status Dynamics
Strictly Stratified Systems
This paper is intended as a contribution to the formal theory of stratification systems. The paper has five sections. In Section 1, a method for analytically inducing an order over a multi-dimensional status is discussed. It is believed that such a technique can aid in the specification of conceptual tasks within stratification theory, as well as serve as a baseline in actual measurements. It is subsequently employed in the axiomatic work of Sect…
Luce's Axiom and occupational prestige: Test of a measurement model
This paper reports research using a psychological theory, R. D. Luce's (1959) individual choice theory, to provide a ratio‐level measurement basis for an important sociological variable, occupational prestige. It is shown that earlier measurement procedures to scale this sociological variable are essentially arbitrary, although heuristically useful. Luce's Axiom of Choice and his Ranking Postulate are then tested on choice sets of occupations whe…
Mathematical Sociology: An Introduction to Fundamentals
A Mathematical Theory of Social Change
The Information Processing Representation of Institutionalised Social Action
The general idea proposed in this paper is that the fundamental properties of institutionalised social action may be understood in terms of the modelling of real systems of social action as information processing systems-systems whose activity is controlled by symbolic processes. A key property of the models is their generative character: from a given model, with appropriate inputs, it is possible to derive explicitly the sequence of activity of …
A mathematical analysis of Boudon's IEO model
Status Characteristics and Social Interaction: An Expectation-States Approach. Joseph Berger , H. Famit Fisek , Robert Z. Norman , Morris Zelditch, Jr
Role-Programme Models and the Analysis of Institutional Structure
Our aim is the development of a formal basis for the analysis of institutional structure. While the concept of an institution is a central one in sociology, there has been much doubt about its analytical utility (Buckley, 1967: 161). The notion of a role-programme model, set out and discussed in this paper, appears to offer a precise analytical version of the institution concept. Its formal basis rests on representational techniques developed in …
Biased networks and social structure theorems
Rubbish Theory: The Creation and Destruction of Value
How do objects that have lost their value become valuable once again? Rubbish is something we ignore. By definition we discard it, from our lives and our minds, and it remains outside the concerns of conventional economics. However, this book explores the dynamics through which rubbish can re-enter circulation as a prized commodity, in many cases far exceeding its original value. Antiques, vintage cars and period homes, after being discarded as v…
Biased networks and the strength of weak ties
Biased networks and social structure theorems: Part II
Tripartite structural analysis: Generalizing the Breiger-Wilson formalism
Institutions as production systems
This paper proposes a formal mode of representation and a corresponding way of thinking about institutionalized social action. It draws its representational technique and its way of thinking about its subject from several sources, including systems theory, cognitive science, and structuralism. It is based on the idea that a model involves a proposed generative mechanism for observable patterns of action and that such a generator must be a system …
Issues in institution representation: Reply to the commentaries
Neoclassical theorizing and formalization in sociology
Action and institution, network and function: The cybernetic concept of social structure
The Growth of Sociological Theories
Introduction What is a Theory? Theoretical Context Theoretical Context and Theory Growth Theoretical Research Programs The Social Context of Theory Growth Toward A Theory of Theory Growth Conclusions
E-State Structuralism: A Theoretical Method
This paper unifies two strands of theoretical method in sociology. On the one hand, the structuralist or network program of research involves the fundamental rule that basic data and analytic procedures of sociology must focus on social relations. This leads to theories about structural stabililty or change, for example, although the network approach generally has been stronger on technique than on explanatory theory. An interest in theoretical e…
Approaches to Social Theory
Unification Research Programs: Integrating Two Structural Theories
The synthesis of discrete theories and principles to generate ever more comprehensive and unified general theory is fundamental to theoretical science. This paper, after introducing the authors' conception of what such a process involves, combines two structural theories: Blau's macrosociological, social differentiation theory and Granovetter's strength-of-weak-ties principle. Each was previously formalized within a common biased-net mathematical…
Sociology (57 works) · Epistemology (48 works) · Computer Science (39 works) · Philosophy (37 works) · Social science (26 works) · Mathematics (22 works) · Philosophy (21 works) · Economics (19 works) · Psychology (19 works) · Political science (16 works)