Introduction

Summary

The central concern of general theoretical sociology is the construction of frameworks and models by means of which generalized sociological problems can be posed and studied. These problems have their roots in those empirical and conceptual problems that pervade all of sociology. They are general problems at the core of our effort to analyze the social world.

The general empirical problems of sociology concern social structures. How do novel social structures emerge? Under what conditions are they stable? How do we compare social structures? How do social structures change? To say that these are general problems is to say that they arise in any and all more specific contexts of sociological analysis whatever the cultural or physical environment, whatever the institutional setting, and whatever the historical period. To pose and work on these problems in a generalized way, the focus shifts from the actual world to abstract and generalized models. But the models are studied from the point of view of what they imply is really possible under varying conditions in the actual world. The concern is with how bare logical possibility, implied in a conceptual scheme, passes over into real possibility as a consequence of principles and mechanisms.

The general conceptual problems arise within the tradition of attempting to provide answers at the same level of generality as the general empirical problems. For example, if social structure is the focus of analysis, what is or should be the role of cultural concepts in our theories?