A Theory of Fields
Oxford University Press
2012
Présentation de l'éditeur
Finding ways to understand the nature of social change and social
order-from political movements to market meltdowns-is one of the
enduring problems of social science. A Theory of Fields draws
together far-ranging insights from social movement theory,
organizational theory, and economic and political sociology to construct
a general theory of social organization and strategic action.
In
a work of remarkable synthesis, imagination, and analysis, Neil
Fligstein and Doug McAdam propose that social change and social order
can be understood through what they call strategic action fields. They
posit that these fields are the general building blocks of political and
economic life, civil society, and the state, and the fundamental form
of order in our world
today. Similar to Russian dolls, they are nested and connected in a
broader environment of almost countless proximate and overlapping
fields. Fields are mutually dependent; change in one often triggers
change in another. At the core of the theory is an account of how social
actors fashion and maintain order in a given field. This sociological
theory of action, what they call "social skill," helps explain what
individuals do in strategic action fields to gain cooperation or engage
in competition.
To demonstrate the breadth of the theory,
Fligstein and McAdam make its abstract principles concrete through
extended case studies of the Civil Rights Movement and the rise and fall
of the market for mortgages in the U.S. since the 1960s. The book also
provides a "how-to" guide to help
others implement the approach and discusses methodological issues.
With a bold new approach, A Theory of Fields offers
both a rigorous and practically applicable way of thinking through and
making sense of social order and change-and how one emerges from the
other-in modern, complex societies.
Neil Fligstein is the Class of 1939 Chancellor's
Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of
California, Berkeley. A renowned scholar of economic sociology,
organizations, and political sociology, he is the author or coauthor of
six books, including The Architecture of Markets and Euroclash: The EU, European Identity, and the Future of Europe.
Doug McAdam is Professor of Sociology at Stanford University. He is the author or co-author of thirteen books in the area of political sociology, with an emphasis on social movements and revolutions. Among his best known works are Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970, Freedom Summer, and (with Sid Tarrow and Charles Tilly) Dynamics of Contention.
Doug McAdam is Professor of Sociology at Stanford University. He is the author or co-author of thirteen books in the area of political sociology, with an emphasis on social movements and revolutions. Among his best known works are Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970, Freedom Summer, and (with Sid Tarrow and Charles Tilly) Dynamics of Contention.
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