Generally Speaking

In this invitation to concept-driven sociology, defying the conventional split between theory and methodology (as well as between quantitative and qualitative research), Eviatar Zerubavel introduces a yet unarticulated Simmelian 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, exampling, 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 generic sociology.


A much welcomed methodological capstone to Eviatar Zerubavel's nearly 50 years of concept-driven research creatively illuminating many of the filaments of social cognition and interaction that would have remained less discernible via more traditional methodologies. -David A. Snow, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of California, Irvine