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Sociological Theories & Concepts

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Abstractions that are named theories or concepts within sociology and social theory — social structure and stratification (homogamy, sponsored mobility, gender polarization), macro-historical frameworks (ecological-evolutionary theory, theory of generations, grand theory), and constructs of culture and symbolic meaning (symbolic culture, social objects, metric power).

21 abstractions in this family — domain-specific abstractions that sit near one another in structural-signature space (k-means over structural-signature embeddings). Each is shown with its short description.

  • Cantometrics — Cantometrics ("song measurements") is a method developed by Alan Lomax and a team of researchers for relating elements of the world's traditional vocal music (or folk songs) to features of social organization as defined via George Murdock's Human Relations Area Files, resulting in a taxonomy of expressive human communications style.
  • Control theory (sociology) — Control theory in sociology is the idea that two control systems—inner controls and outer controls—work against our tendencies to deviate.
  • Ecological-evolutionary theory — Ecological-evolutionary theory (EET) is a sociological theory of sociocultural evolution that attempts to explain the origin and changes of society and culture.
  • Ethnoscape — Finanscapes can conflict with ethnoscapes, as networks of global Social movements often protest against Human Rights Violations that take place during the Games; as result, ideoscapes then clash with ethnoscapes, as city brands and narratives are disrupted by these demonstrations and subsequent negative press.
  • Gender polarization — In sociology, gender polarization is a concept first described by American psychologist Sandra Bem which states that societies tend to define femininity and masculinity as polar opposite genders, such that male-acceptable behaviors and attitudes are not seen as appropriate for women, and vice versa.
  • Grand Theory — Grand theory is a term coined by the American sociologist C.
  • Homogamy (sociology) — Homogamy is marriage between individuals who are, in some culturally important way, similar to each other.
  • Interacting Particle System — In probability theory, an interacting particle system (IPS) is a stochastic process (X(t))_{t \in \mathbb R^+} on some configuration space \Omega= S^G given by a site space, a countably-infinite-order graph G and a local state space, a compact metric space S .
  • Lasswell's model of communication — Lasswell's model of communication is one of the first and most influential models of communication.
  • Mechanical and Organic Solidarity — In sociology, mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity are the two types of social solidarity that were formulated by Émile Durkheim, introduced in his Division of Labour in Society (1893) as part of his theory on the development of societies.
  • Metric power — Metric power is a sociological concept developed by David Beer.
  • Prosopography — Prosopography is an investigation of the common characteristics of a group of people, whose individual biographies may be largely untraceable.
  • Social condenser — Inspired by the ideologies of Soviet Constructivist theory, the social condenser () is an architectural form defined by its influence over spatial dynamics.
  • Social networks — A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors.
  • Social objects — Social objects are objects that gain meaning through processes of reification (e.g. ritual).
  • Sponsored mobility — Sponsored mobility refers to a system of social mobility where elite individuals in society select (either directly or through agents) recruits to induct into high status groups.
  • Structure of feeling — A structure of feeling is a historically situated pattern of lived social experience inferred from emerging cultural forms before it is fully fixed as doctrine or institution.
  • Symbolic culture — Symbolic culture, or non-material culture, is the cultural realm constructed and inhabited uniquely by Homo sapiens and is differentiated from ordinary culture, which many other animals possess.
  • Symbolic self-completion theory — The theory of symbolic self-completion is a psychological theory which holds that individuals seek to acquire and display symbols that are strongly related to what they perceive as the ideal self.
  • Temporality — In philosophy, temporality refers to the idea of a linear progression of past, present, and future.
  • Theory of generations — Theory of generations (or sociology of generations) is a theory posed by Karl Mannheim in his 1928 essay, "Das Problem der Generationen," and translated into English in 1952 as "The Problem of Generations." This essay has been described as "the most systematic and fully developed" and even "the seminal theoretical treatment of generations as a sociological phenomenon".