Mechanisms and Causality in Sociology

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Mechanisms and Causality in Sociology

• Rubén D. Flores Sandoval

Mechanisms and Causality in the Sciences,
University of Kent, 2009
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Mechanisms and CausalityGrowing attention to
mechanisms within the philosophy of social
science and social theory (Gross 2009)

• Knowledge is the knowledge of causes (Russo
  2009)
• Social mechanisms relevant for social policy
  (Weber 2007 Hunting Causes)
• What are social mechanisms? Are they different
  from mechanisms in the natural sciences? How far
  can they take us?

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Social Mechanisms

• Various conceptions have been suggested
• Mechanisms as Observable processes that do not
  require the posting of motives
• Mechanisms as Lower-Order Social Processes
• Mechanisms as Trigerable Causal Powers
• Mechanisms as Transformative Events
• Gross 2009 360-361

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A provisional definition

• A social mechanism is a more or less general
  sequence of set of social events or processes ()
  by whichin certain circumstancessome cause X
  tends to bring about some effect Y in the realm
  of human social relations. (Gross 2009 364)

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However,

• Most conceptions put forth so far work with an
  unsatisfactory conception of social action (Gross
  2009)
• As an alternative to current models, Neil Gross
  has put forth a model of social mechanisms based
  on American Pragmatism philosophy and social
  theory
• Human beings as problem solvers
• Human Action Habit and Creativity
• Social Action as Social Practice

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Grosss model of SM

• Actors
• Problem Situations
• Habitus
• Responses
• A-P-H-R chainsare systems and power somehow
  missing from the picture?

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My aims here

• I would like to 1) extend one of Grosss points
  discussion about social mechanisms needs to take
  social theory seriously. And 2) argue that it is
  possible to think of social mechanisms in terms
  of entities and activities (Machamer, Darden and
  Craver 2000).

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Thinking about social entities and activities

• How to think of entities and activities within
  the social world? (cf. debates around the
  relation between mechanisms in the natural
  sciences and the social sciences. See Cassini,
  this conference)
• Is human agency comparable to what, say, aspirin
  does?
• What other forms of activities are out there in
  society?
• How do human agency differs from the causal
  powers of emergent social entities (e.g.
  capitalism)?

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Social ontology

• What kind of entities and activities populate the
  social world?
• Proposition any satisfactory account of social
  mechanisms ought to take social ontology
  seriously.

Actors
Problem Situations
Habitus, Responses
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Social Theory

• Pragmatism
• Communicative Action
• Functionalism
• System Theory
• Critical Realism
• Competing conceptions of entities and activities?

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How to think about society?

• Archer Structures/Agents (Analytical Dualism)
• Giddens Structure/ Agency
• Habermas Lifeworld/System
• Luhmann System/Environment
• Different accounts of EA may have different
  implications for our understanding of SM

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Social Ontology (1) Social Action
Actors
Habitus
Reflexivity
Agency
Lifeworld
How to characterise entities and activities in
the realm of social action?
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Social Ontology (2) Systems
Social things
Lifeworld
Structures
Figurations
Systems
How to characterise entities and activities in
the realm of emergent social entities?
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When assessing causality, mechanisms are only
part of the story
2. Precision
3. Breadth
1. Specification
Block 1
6. Parsimony
4. Boundedness
5. Strenght
7. Differentiation
9. Independence
8. Priority
11. Mechanism
10. Contingency
12. Coherence
15. Innovation
14. Relevance
13. Intelligibility
16. Comparison
Criteria for Assesing Causal Propositions
(Gerring 2005)
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Some open questions

• What is the reach, and what the limitations, of
  social mechanisms in explaining the social world
  (cf. Abbott 2004)?
• Are there problems that are not amenable to a
  mechanistic explanation?
• What about social policy?
• Can mechanisms guide us to elucidate questions of
  ontology?

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Summary (1)

• Research on social mechanisms needs to take
  social ontology (and thus social theory)
  seriously. What entities and activities
  constitute the social world?
• Stressing the importance of social ontology does
  not amount to asserting a split between natural
  and social mechanisms (cf. Casini)
• MDC 2000 offers a possibility for a unifying
  conception of social and natural mechanisms.

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Summary (2)

• There is need for more dialogue between social
  theory and the philosophy of science.
• Properly understood, social mechanisms can
  illuminate questions of causality within
  sociology.
• Causality is important, but it is not the only
  task of social science Description is also
  important (Abbott 1998) even when making causal
  claims, mechanisms are only part of the story
  (Gerring 2005)
• What are the limitations of SM in explaining
  society?

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THANK YOU

• Comments
• Questions

rdfloresss_at_gmail.com
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References

• Abbott, Andrew (1998). The Causal Devolution.
  Sociological Methods Research, 27(2), pp.
  148-181.
• Abbott, Andrew (2004).Methods of Discovery.
  Heuristics for the Social Sciences, London W. W.
  Norton Company.
• Archer, Margaret. (2000). Being Human. The
  Problem of Agency. Cambrdige Cambrdige
  University Press.
• Bechtel, William and Abrahamsen, Adele.
  (2005).Explanation A mechanistic alternative.
  Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological
  and Biomedical Sciences 421-441.
• Cartwright, N. (2007). Hunting Causes and Using
  Them. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
• Casini, Lorenzo. (2009). Social Mechanisms What
  Social Sciences can Learn from Natural Sciences.
• Gerring, John. (2005). Causation A Unified
  Framework for the Social Sciences. Journal of
  Theoretical Policits, 17(2), 163-198.
• Gross, Neil. (2009). A Pragmatist Theory of
  Social Mechanisms. American Sociological Review,
  74, June, pp. 358-379.
• Hedstrøm, Peter and Swedeberg, Richard (1996).
  Social Mechanisms. Acta Sociologica. 39(3), p.
  281-308.
• Machamer, Peter (2004). Activities and causation
  The metaphysics and epistemology of mechanisms,
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  Science, 18(1), March, pp. 27-39
• Machamer, Peter, Darden, Lindley and Craver, Carl
  F. (2000) Thinking about mechanisms. Philosophy
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• Russo, Federica (2009). Causality and Causal
  Modelling in the Social Sciences. Measuring
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• Elder-Vass, Dave(2005). Emergence and the Realist
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• Weber, Eric (2007). Social Mechanisms, Causal
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