| Member Profile : Ronald Breiger |
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 | Contact Information | Address: -Map Me-
Ronald Breiger
University of Arizona, Sociology
Department of Sociology, 400 Soc Sci Bldg.
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ, United States 85721-0027
Phone : 1-520-621-3524
E-mail : Breiger@Arizona.Edu
Website : http://www.u.arizona.edu/~breiger
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| Sunbelt XXIX - March 10 to March 15, 2009 - Bahia Hotel | | Abstract : Exploiting the Duality of Cases and Variables in QCA (Qualitative Comparative Analysis) |
| An innovative, highly developed, and widely influential strategy for conducting comparative social research is the Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) approach of Charles Ragin. I think about QCA from the perspective of two-mode network analysis. I build upon a foundation of QCA, the duality of cases and variables. Within QCA, cases are productively understood as configurations of variables; at the same time, variables may be seen as configurations of cases. From the perspective of social network analysis of two-mode data, the key challenges are (1) how to deal with "dependent variables," (2) how a large number of potential QCA "solutions" might be ordered with respect to their association with an outcome variable, (3) how to represent in a joint space the fundamental units of QCA, which are combinations of cases and combinations of variables, and (4) extensions to Ragin's fuzzy-set mode of QCA. The principal machinery brought to bear in this investigation is barycentric correspondence analysis, which is well-suited for set-theoretic work and its extensions. Applications are provided to the study of ethnic political mobilization and to other topics. |
| Sunbelt XXX - June 29 to July 04, 2010 - Riva del Garda Fierecongressi | | Abstract : Problems for Network Theory in the Thought of Durkheim, Simmel, Bourdieu, and Spinoza |
| Sociological theorists have formulated a number of general problems that have direct relevance to procedures of social network analysis. From Simmel we inherit a concern for the form versus the content of social relations, for theorizing money as a network relation, and for the problem of objective networks versus cultural relativism. In Durkheim’s work we can find insight into the dualism of human nature, the strength of weak ties, and the social construction of forms of solidarity. Bourdieu’s sociology presents problems of self-interest versus determination in constructing networks of social and cultural capital. My thesis is that all of these theorists were grappling in important and surprisingly explicit ways with the thought of the seventeenth-century philosopher, Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza. Moreover, by identifying how Simmel, Durkheim, and Bourdieu worked with Spinoza’s thought, we may see some new opportunities for shaping the analysis of social networks. |
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