Final Report Summary - ANALYTICAL SOCIOLOGY (Analytical Sociology: Theoretical Developments and Empirical Research)
The Analytical Sociology project pursued its ambitious agenda more or less according to plan. The project not only made important contributions to the methodological and theoretical agenda of analytical sociology, it also made important contributions to our understanding of segregation processes.
The research project consisted of three interrelated work packages, one theoretical, one methodological, and one empirical:
1. Explaining macro-level dynamics: This work package was concerned with basic theoretical and philosophical aspects of how one can go about explaining macro level dynamics, and with those aspects of the methodological and epistemological foundations of analytical sociology that needed further clarifications.
2. Modeling micro-level mechanisms and macro-level dynamics: This work package has developed large-scale agent-based simulation models in order to improve our understanding of macro-level dynamics and the micro mechanisms that bring them about.
3. Social segregation processes. This empirically oriented work package was tightly integrated with the theoretical and methodological cores of the project. The main focus has been on the processes that bring about segregated schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods, and on how social interactions among individuals bring about various intended and unintended macro-level outcomes.
Considerable progress has been made in all three work packages. Numerous articles and book chapters have been published, and a major book is in preparation.
The project also has had several important unintended institutional effects that will be of considerable importance for future research in this area. Such effects include the establishment of the annual meetings of the International Network of Analytical Sociologists as one of the preeminent conferences in this area, the founding of the Institute for Analytical Sociology at Linköping University, and the launch of a PhD program in Analytical Sociology at Linköping University.
The research project consisted of three interrelated work packages, one theoretical, one methodological, and one empirical:
1. Explaining macro-level dynamics: This work package was concerned with basic theoretical and philosophical aspects of how one can go about explaining macro level dynamics, and with those aspects of the methodological and epistemological foundations of analytical sociology that needed further clarifications.
2. Modeling micro-level mechanisms and macro-level dynamics: This work package has developed large-scale agent-based simulation models in order to improve our understanding of macro-level dynamics and the micro mechanisms that bring them about.
3. Social segregation processes. This empirically oriented work package was tightly integrated with the theoretical and methodological cores of the project. The main focus has been on the processes that bring about segregated schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods, and on how social interactions among individuals bring about various intended and unintended macro-level outcomes.
Considerable progress has been made in all three work packages. Numerous articles and book chapters have been published, and a major book is in preparation.
The project also has had several important unintended institutional effects that will be of considerable importance for future research in this area. Such effects include the establishment of the annual meetings of the International Network of Analytical Sociologists as one of the preeminent conferences in this area, the founding of the Institute for Analytical Sociology at Linköping University, and the launch of a PhD program in Analytical Sociology at Linköping University.