SSCI 2900U Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Verstehen, Nomothetic, Anomie
5 Dec 2017
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Week 2- chapter 2 - theory and social research. 3 things to keep in mind about social theories: Explains recurring themes, not unique or one-time events. Look to explain aggravates (large groups), not 1 or 2 individual cases. Want to try to state a probability, chance or tendency that something will occur. Focus is on abstract, large scale and broad-scope aspects of social reality. Interactions between nations of comparisons across nations: meso. Focus is on middle level social reality, attempt to link macro and micro level phenomenon. Ex. experiences of groups or interactions between groups: micro. Focus is on small- scale social reality. Building blocks of theory/ idea expressed with words or symbols. Level of social/moral integration & regulation, the lack of which he. Parts of a theory: assumptions, agency & structure. Debate between able to control your own life/ destiny or is your life/ destiny controlled by economy/ society: ontology & epistemology, link up to different paradigms.
