Social Mechanisms: An Analytical Approach to Social Theory

I am a big fan of explanations of social phenomena that set forth the precise causal mechanisms that produce them. This book edited by Peter Hedstroem and Richard Swedberg provides a very good introduction to the approach. You can download the overview chapter here:  Social-mechanism.pdf Click on “More…” for a Table of Contents.

1. Social mechanisms: an introductory essay Peter Hedstroem and Richard Swedberg; 2. Social mechanisms and social dynamics Thomas C. Schelling; 3. A plea for mechanisms Jon Elster; 4. Real virtuality Gudmund Hernes; 5. Concatenations of mechanisms Diego Gambetta; 6. Do economists use social mechanisms to explain? Tyler Cowen; 7. Social mechanisms of dissonance reduction Timur Kuran; 8. Social mechanisms without black boxes Raymond Boudon; 9. Is sociological theory too grand for social mechanisms? Axel van den Berg; 10. Theoretical mechanisms and the empirical study of social processes Aage Sørensen; 11. Monopolistic competition as a mechanism Arthur Stinchcombe; 12. Rational imitation Peter Hedstroem.