Generally Speaking

In this invitation to "e;concept-driven"e; sociology, defying the conventional split between "e;theory"e; and "e;methodology"e; (as well as between "e;quantitative"e; and "e;qualitative"e; research), Eviatar Zerubavel introduces a yet unarticulated "e;Simmelian"e; method of theorizing specifically designed to reveal fundamental, often hidden social patterns. Insisting that it can actually be taught, he examines the theoretico-methodological process (revolving around the epistemic and analytical acts of focusing, generalizing, "e;exampling,"e; and analogizing) by which concept-driven researchers can distill generic social patterns from the culturally, historically, and domain-specific contexts in which they encounter them empirically. Disregarding conventionally noted substantive variability in order to uncover conventionally disregarded formal commonalities, Generally Speaking draws on cross-cultural, cross-historical, cross-domain, and cross-level analogies in an effort to reveal formal parallels across disparate contexts. Using numerous examples from culturally and historically diverse contexts and a wide range of social domains while also disregarding scale, Zerubavel thus introduces a pronouncedly transcontextual "e;generic"e; sociology.