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uchicago-computation-workshop / steven_durlauf

Repository for Steven Durlauf's presentation at the CSS Workshop (2/28/2019)
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Formal theory development in sociology #20

Open Otamio opened 5 years ago

Otamio commented 5 years ago

With all the efforts spent by previous researchers, it seems there is no formal theory in sociology. The political scientists are doing really well with formal theories these day, with the help of extensive economic tools. How do you think introducing tools such as econometrics may benefit the development of sociology as a discipline? Your research shows a promising way of how econometrics can be blend with social theories, I am just wondering if formal sociological theories can do better by integrating the ideas from other disciplines.

Again, thanks for your presentation.

tamos commented 5 years ago

I think this might be a misconception. There is certainly a tradition of formal sociological theory. The theory of intervening opportunities, for example, was developed by Stouffer (1940), a UChicago sociologist.

Maybe what is actually happening is sociology as a discipline is more focused on corner cases; points where theory tends to break down?

sdurlauf commented 5 years ago

It is important to recognize that there are formal modelling traditions in sociology. One example is social networks. Sociologists such as Michael Macy have been heavily involved in agent based models. A distinct and more specific context is segregation. And the Journal of Mathematical Sociology is still going strong as is Rationality and Society.