The Politics of Method in the Human Sciences: Positivism and Its Epistemological Others

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The Politics of Method in the Human Sciences

Positivism and Its Epistemological Others

Edited by: George Steinmetz and Julia Adams
With contributions by: Webb Keane and Michael Dutton

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2005

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This book is in the series

Politics, History, and Culture

About this book

Collection of new essays on the past, present, and future of positivism in the various social sciences

Author / Editor information

George Steinmetz is Professor of Sociology and German Studies at the University of Michigan. He is the author of Regulating the Social: The Welfare State and Local Politics in Imperial Germany and The Devil’s Handwriting: Ethnographic Discourse and “Native Policy” in the German Overseas Empire (Southwest Africa, Samoa, and Quingdao/China) (forthcoming) and the editor of State/Culture: State-Formation after the Cultural Turn.

Reviews

“By contrasting the diverse trajectories and strategies of positivist method within each discipline, The Politics of Method in the Human Sciences develops a comparative perspective which has been lacking in virtually all prior treatments of positivism in social science. The contrasts in the form and prestige that positivist method assumed in each discipline are striking.”—Craig Calhoun, President of the Social Science Research Council

“George Steinmetz and his colleagues present provocative perspectives on the politics of knowledge in the human sciences. Magisterial overviews jostle with unsettling manifestos in this comprehensive and challenging collection. The Politics of Method in the Human Sciences is a necessary prolegomenon to any future epistemological debate.” —John Lie, Class of 1959 Professor and Dean of International and Area Studies, University of California, Berkeley

Topics

Social Sciences Sociology History of Sociology

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Positivism and Its Others in the Social Sciences George Steinmetz Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	1
Part one. Positivism and Nonpositivism in Twentieth-Century Social Science
Anthropology. Estrangement, Intimacy, and the Objects of Anthropology Webb Keane Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	59
Area studies/asian studies. The Trick of Words: Asian Studies, Translation, and the Problems of Knowledge Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	89
Economics. Economists and the Economy in the Twentieth Century Timothy Mitchell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	126
Economics/philosophy of science. How Positivism Made a Pact with the Postwar Social Sciences in the United States Philip Mirowski Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	142
History. The Political Unconscious of Social and Cultural History, or, Confessions of a Former Quantitative Historian William H. Sewell Jr. Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	173
Political science/political theory. Defining ‘‘Theory’’ in Postwar Political Science Emily Hauptmann Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	207
Sociology and economics. Beware Trojan Horses Bearing Social Capital: How Privatization Turned Solidarity into a Bowling Team Margaret R. Somers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	233
Sociology. Scientific Authority and the Transition to Post-Fordism: The Plausibility of Positivism in U.S. Sociology since George Steinmetz Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	275
Part two. Alternatives to Positivism in the Human Sciences
Philosophy and critical realism. Critical Realism Andrew Collier Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	327
Philosophy and standpoint theory. Negotiating with the Positivist Legacy: New Social Justice Movements and a Standpoint Politics of Method Sandra Harding Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	346
Economics and critical realism. A Perspective on Modern Economics Tony Lawson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	366
Process and temporality in sociology. The Idea of Outcome in U.S. Sociology Andrew Abbott Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	393
Psychoanalysis as critique. Psychoanalysis and the Theory of the Subject Anthony Elliott Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	427
Sociology of science. The Real and the Imaginary in Economic Methodology Daniel Breslau Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	451
Making sense in and of political science. Facts, Values, and ‘‘Real’’ Numbers Sophia Mihic, Stephen G. Engelmann and Elizabeth Rose Wingrove Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	470
Being undisciplined. On Your Marx: From Cultural History to the History of Society Geoff Eley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	496
Conclusion. Provincializing the Social Sciences Michael Burawoy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	508
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	527
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	583
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	587
Citation Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	607

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

May 16, 2005

eBook ISBN:

9780822386889

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Main content:

632

Other:

1 table

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822386889

eBook ISBN: 9780822386889

The Politics of Method in the Human Sciences

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About this book

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