Boudon Reexamined
Boudon Reexamined presents a selection of short essays by leading scholars from several generations who critically engage and enter into dialogue with the work of Raymond Boudon. Each chapter focuses on a specific topic from his extensive writings. Readers will follow this intellectual trajectory through analyses of early correspondence with Lazarsfeld and Merton, his typology of sociological styles, and his contributions to contemporary analytical sociology, including the notion of middle-range theory. In addition to already well-discussed aspects of Boudon’s work, namely his understanding of methodological individualism and the theory of ordinary rationality, the book also explores less frequently discussed topics, including his early interest in formal modeling in sociology and his understanding of the link between interdependence structures and social change. Included in the following pages are new assessments of Boudon’s well-known analyses of the inequality of educational opportunity and intergenerational social mobility, as well as his lesser-known substantive contributions to the study of relative deprivation and his early dialogue with game theory. The book also outlines Boudon’s study of classical authors, especially Tocqueville, before two final chapters conclude by examining how Boudon’s works can be used to teach sociology at the undergraduate and master’s levels. Our hope is that Boudon Reexamined provides readers with a fresh assessment of his legacy –how his work can be applied to conduct theoretical and empirical research in contemporary sociology, as well as to promote high-quality scientific standards for new generations.
Foreword, by Gianluca Manzo
PART I. SCIENTIFIC PATH AND STYLE
Chapter i. A Short Journey through Boudon’s Work, by Pierre-Michel Menger
Chapter ii. The Transatlantic Circulation of a Sociological Scientific Ethos: The Correspondence of Raymond Boudon, by Michel Dubois and Sylvie Mesure
Chapter iii. Types of Sociology, by Filippo Barbera
PART II. THINKING BY SOCIAL MECHANISMS
Chapter iv. Generative Models, Action Theories, and Analytical Sociology, by Peter Hedström
Chapter v. Middle Range Theorizing, by Hartmut Esser
Chapter vi. Formal Models in Raymond Boudon’s Work, by Lucas Sage
PART III. SOCIOLOGY OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
Chapter vii. Inequality of Educational Oppportunity: L’Inégalité des chances Fifty Years Later, by Richard Breen
Chapter viii. Inequality of Social Opportunity: L’Inégalité des chances Fifty Years Later, by Gunn Elisabeth Birkelund
Chapter ix. On the Relationship between Inequality of Educational Opportunity and Inequality of Social Opportunity, by Louis-André Vallet
PART IV. RELATIVE DEPRIVATION, GAME THEORY AND SOCIAL INTERDEPENDENCY
Chapter x. Coleman’s Problem and Boudon’s Solution: Rational Choice Theory as a Tool for Sociology, by Werner Raub
Chapter xi. The Logic of Relative Frustration. Experimental Tests of Raymond Boudon’s Mobility Model, Joël Berger, by Andreas Diekmann and Stefan Wehrli
Chapter xii. Boudon and the Extraterrestrials. A Generative Model of the Emergence of a Religion, by Jörg Stolz
PART V. METHODOLOGICAL INDIVIDUALISM AND RATIONALITY
Chapter xiii. Methodological Individualism: Key Insights from Boudon and a Critical Discussion, by Nathalie Bulle
Chapter xiv. Dissecting the “Good Reasons” and their Link to Rationality, by Pierre Demeulenaere
Chapter xv. Boudon on Tocqueville, by Stephen Turner
PART VI. TRAINING THE NEW GENERATION
Chapter xvi: Complexity from Chaos: Theorizing Social Change, by Emily Erikson
Chapter xvii. Teaching Sociology and the History of Sociology, by Fernando Sanantonio and Francisco J. Miguel
Chapter xviii. Boudon’s Legacy from a Teaching Perspective, by Gianluca Manzo
Acknowledgments
