Tying Micro and Macro
What Fills up the Sociological Vacuum?
Series:
Mikolaj Pawlak
This study critically discusses the thesis on the sociological vacuum formulated by Stefan Nowak. The author’s aim is to refute the claim that the sociological vacuum is relevant for major social processes occurring in Poland. He presents the sociological vacuum in the context of the debate on micro and macro levels and discusses how the theory of fields and social network analysis is useful to reconcile the micro-macro divide. The book considers the uses of the sociological vacuum in explaining such phenomena as the Solidarność social movement, civil society, social capital, and democracy. In the empirical part, the author confronts the data on identifications with the data on relations and claims that the vacuum is not in the society but it in sociology.
- Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien, 2018, 272 p., 3 b/w ill., 6 b/w tab.
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the author(s)/editor(s)
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I: The micro-macro problem in sociology: theoretical background
- 1 Classical approaches to the micro-macro problem in sociology
- 1.1 Introduction
- 1.2 Micro-macro and other pairings in sociological theory
- 1.3 The classics on micro-macro and macro-micro
- 1.4 The 1980s and the debate about the micro-macro link
- 1.5 Linking micro and macro via meso
- 1.6 Concluding remarks
- 2 Social fields: the meso-level of analysis
- 2.1 Introduction
- 2.2 Social fields and the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu
- 2.3 Sociology of organizations in the search for the level of analysis
- 2.4 Towards an integration of the field theories: strategic action fields approach
- 2.5 Concluding remarks
- 3 Social networks: tying micro and macro
- 3.1 Introduction
- 3.2 From fishermen to World Wide Web: a brief review of network approaches in social sciences
- 3.3 How nodes are tied into society: from micro to macro
- 3.4 Concluding remarks
- Part II: The sociological vacuum: the story of the spell cast on Polish sociologists
- 4 Polish sociology in the 1970s, Stefan Nowak, and the sociological vacuum thesis
- 4.1 Introduction
- 4.2 Stefan Nowak
- 4.3 Survey sociology: measurement of attitudes, values, and society as an aggregate of individuals
- 4.4 Thesis on Poland’s sociological vacuum
- 4.5 The sociological vacuum: brilliant intuition or a methodological artifact?
- 4.6 Concluding remarks
- 5 Solidarność: how atomized individuals mobilized as a social movement?
- 5.1 Introduction
- 5.2 The outburst of Solidarność: the most interesting event in Polish social history
- 5.3 A movement fulfilling the vacuum? Solidarność as a problem for sociology of Polish society
- 5.4 Towards sociological explanations of Solidarność: how are atoms linked into a society?
- 5.5 Concluding remarks
- 6 Civil society: in search of the new actor of the social transformation
- 6.1 Introduction
- 6.2 Civil society: its rivals and kin
- 6.3 Civil society in the vacuum
- 6.4 For the common good? Associationalism: its advantages and disadvantages
- 6.5 In search of civic life in Poland
- 6.6 Concluding remarks
- 7 Social capital: what mediates between individuals and society?
- 7.1 Introduction
- 7.2 Social capital: short story of a fuzzy concept
- 7.3 Social capital and the sociological vacuum
- 7.4 What do we know about the social capital in Poland?
- 7.5 Concluding remarks
- 8 Quality of democracy: social base for political institutions
- 8.1 Introduction
- 8.2 Democracy: aggregating individual wills into collective action
- 8.3 Democracy in the vacuum?
- 8.4 Concluding remarks
- Part III: What fills up the sociological vacuum? Empirical illustration
- 9 Getting a job in Poland: how weak ties fill up the sociological vacuum?
- 9.1 Introduction
- 9.2 Brief story of getting a job studies
- 9.3 Getting a job in Poland
- 9.4 Concluding remarks
- Conclusions
- References
- Index
- Series index
Acknowledgements
This book has been written thanks to the financial support of National Science Center (Narodowe Centrum Nauki) and presents the results of the research project “What Fills up the Sociological Vacuum? The Reinterpretation of Stefan Nowak’s Thesis from a Network Perspective, as Exemplified by the Labor Market Behaviors” (DEC-2012/07/D/HS6/00977). I am very thankful to my good friend and statistical data wizard, Michał Kotnarowski, who worked with me as the key investigator in this research project. The friendly atmosphere of the Institute of Social Prevention and Resocialization at the University of Warsaw – where I am happy to be employed as assistant professor – is a merit of its director, Danuta Lalak. The vigorous discussions during the work on this volume were possible thanks to the intellectual diversity of the Chair of Sociology of Norms, Deviance, and Social Control headed by Jerzy Kwaśniewski; not without significance was the scholarly curiosity of Joanna Zamecka. I had the opportunity to present my thoughts on the topic of sociological vacuum in various formal and less formal occasions. My inspirations came from various discussions and critical comments of Mikołaj Cześnik, Mateusz Fałkowski, Piotr Kulas, Adriana Mica, Jakub Motrenko, Ireneusz Sadowski, and Andrzej Zybała. I have also received advice and various kinds of help from Izabela Bukraba-Rylska, Jarosław Kilias, Ireneusz Krzemiński, Aleksander Manterys, Agnieszka Nowakowska, Jakub Pawlak, Irena Rzeplińska, Tadeusz Szawiel, and Kacper Wierzbicki, to all of whom I am indebted. Dealing with the administrative aspect of the research project would not be possible without the expertise of Małgorzata Bojarska and Edyta Szałas. Ilona Kawalec from the Public Opinion Research Center did a great job coordinating the survey execution. I would like to express my gratitude to Mateusz Durczak, who helped me to better express my thoughts by excellent proofreading. Last, but no least, I am thankful to the anonymous staffs of several libraries in which I have searched for materials for this book or simply used their reading rooms. Authors rarely thank librarians, which is wrong, because before writing a book, one needs to spend some time reading other books as well, and without their guidance, this task would be much more difficult.
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the author(s)/editor(s)
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I: The micro-macro problem in sociology: theoretical background
- 1 Classical approaches to the micro-macro problem in sociology
- 1.1 Introduction
- 1.2 Micro-macro and other pairings in sociological theory
- 1.3 The classics on micro-macro and macro-micro
- 1.4 The 1980s and the debate about the micro-macro link
- 1.5 Linking micro and macro via meso
- 1.6 Concluding remarks
- 2 Social fields: the meso-level of analysis
- 2.1 Introduction
- 2.2 Social fields and the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu
- 2.3 Sociology of organizations in the search for the level of analysis
- 2.4 Towards an integration of the field theories: strategic action fields approach
- 2.5 Concluding remarks
- 3 Social networks: tying micro and macro
- 3.1 Introduction
- 3.2 From fishermen to World Wide Web: a brief review of network approaches in social sciences
- 3.3 How nodes are tied into society: from micro to macro
- 3.4 Concluding remarks
- Part II: The sociological vacuum: the story of the spell cast on Polish sociologists
- 4 Polish sociology in the 1970s, Stefan Nowak, and the sociological vacuum thesis
- 4.1 Introduction
- 4.2 Stefan Nowak
- 4.3 Survey sociology: measurement of attitudes, values, and society as an aggregate of individuals
- 4.4 Thesis on Poland’s sociological vacuum
- 4.5 The sociological vacuum: brilliant intuition or a methodological artifact?
- 4.6 Concluding remarks
- 5 Solidarność: how atomized individuals mobilized as a social movement?
- 5.1 Introduction
- 5.2 The outburst of Solidarność: the most interesting event in Polish social history
- 5.3 A movement fulfilling the vacuum? Solidarność as a problem for sociology of Polish society
- 5.4 Towards sociological explanations of Solidarność: how are atoms linked into a society?
- 5.5 Concluding remarks
- 6 Civil society: in search of the new actor of the social transformation
- 6.1 Introduction
- 6.2 Civil society: its rivals and kin
- 6.3 Civil society in the vacuum
- 6.4 For the common good? Associationalism: its advantages and disadvantages
- 6.5 In search of civic life in Poland
- 6.6 Concluding remarks
- 7 Social capital: what mediates between individuals and society?
- 7.1 Introduction
- 7.2 Social capital: short story of a fuzzy concept
- 7.3 Social capital and the sociological vacuum
- 7.4 What do we know about the social capital in Poland?
- 7.5 Concluding remarks
- 8 Quality of democracy: social base for political institutions
- 8.1 Introduction
- 8.2 Democracy: aggregating individual wills into collective action
- 8.3 Democracy in the vacuum?
- 8.4 Concluding remarks
- Part III: What fills up the sociological vacuum? Empirical illustration
- 9 Getting a job in Poland: how weak ties fill up the sociological vacuum?
- 9.1 Introduction
- 9.2 Brief story of getting a job studies
- 9.3 Getting a job in Poland
- 9.4 Concluding remarks
- Conclusions
- References
- Index
- Series index