Foundations of Social Theory¶
Coleman, J. S. (1990). Foundations of Social Theory. Belknap Press.
Cited by¶
6 citations across 6 artifacts.
Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.
Primes¶
- Collective Efficacy
- T1 — Collective efficacy and moral direction of collective action. High collective efficacy can be directed toward socially beneficial ends (neighborhood safety, community health, environmental stewardship) or socially harmful ones (gang solidarity, persecuting outsiders, enforcing discriminatory norms)
This sourceDevelops the theory of norms and sanctions, including how dispersed sanctioning is realized at a cost to sanctioners and how the locus of enforcement is separated from the holder of authority.
- T1 — Collective efficacy and moral direction of collective action. High collective efficacy can be directed toward socially beneficial ends (neighborhood safety, community health, environmental stewardship) or socially harmful ones (gang solidarity, persecuting outsiders, enforcing discriminatory norms)
- Informal Enforcement
- The neighbor who lets the trash pile up, the trader who reneges on a handshake deal, the forum member who posts in bad faith, the colleague who claims others' work — none of these is hauled before a tribunal, yet each faces a real cost imposed by the people around them.
This sourceDevelops the theory of norms and sanctions, including how dispersed sanctioning is realized at a cost to sanctioners and how the locus of enforcement is separated from the holder of authority; supports the claims about converting scattered reactions into a coherent disincentive and distinguishing who makes a rule bite from who is nominally in charge.
- The neighbor who lets the trash pile up, the trader who reneges on a handshake deal, the forum member who posts in bad faith, the colleague who claims others' work — none of these is hauled before a tribunal, yet each faces a real cost imposed by the people around them.
- Micro Macro Linkage
- The "boat" schema of social theory — macro-cause to micro-situation to micro-action to macro-effect — is the canonical diagram; statistical mechanics relating molecular states to thermodynamic variables is its physical prototype.
This sourceIntroduces the macro-micro-micro-macro "boat" schema for social explanation (the diagram on p. 8), the canonical diagram of micro-macro linkage.
- The "boat" schema of social theory — macro-cause to micro-situation to micro-action to macro-effect — is the canonical diagram; statistical mechanics relating molecular states to thermodynamic variables is its physical prototype.
Mechanisms¶
- Micro/Meso/Macro Causal Map
- Its classic misuse is treating an aggregate pattern as if a single micro actor intended it, the trap the sociologist's Coleman's boat was drawn to prevent: macro outcomes emerge from many micro actions that no one actor experiences as consequential.
This sourceWarns that representing a macro-level entity as a single goal-oriented actor can hide the lower-level actions and conflicts that produce system behavior.
- Its classic misuse is treating an aggregate pattern as if a single micro actor intended it, the trap the sociologist's Coleman's boat was drawn to prevent: macro outcomes emerge from many micro actions that no one actor experiences as consequential.
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