Verstehen for Sociology: Comment on Watts
Author(s)
Turco, Catherine Joan; Zuckerman Sivan, Ezra W
DownloadTurco_Verstehen for sociology.pdf (517.3Kb)
PUBLISHER_POLICY
Publisher Policy
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Terms of use
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Duncan Watts, in “Common Sense and Sociological Explanations” (AJS 120 [2014]: 313–51) has done our field a great service by raising a question at the heart of the sociological enterprise: What makes for valuable sociology, and when does it improve upon commonsense explanations? Watts makes three key observations that we believe are quite productive to contemplate. First, one may distinguish between two distinct modes of sociological inquiry: a verstehen (Weber 1968; Watts, p. 318) mode that resembles commonsense explanations in that it aims to establish an empathetic link between the readers or users of such accounts and the actors who populate them; and a “causal” mode, which seeks to identify “generalizable causal mechanisms” (Watts, p. 327; cf. Hedström 2005) that can, in principle, generate testable predictions and, thus, be vetted for their causal validity. Second, sociological theories must have greater causal validity than commonsense explanations if sociology is to make good on its promise of being more valuable than mere common sense. Third, in conducting their research, sociologists often focus on the verstehen mode without engaging in the causal mode.
Date issued
2017-01Department
Sloan School of ManagementJournal
American Journal of Sociology
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Citation
Turco, Catherine J. and Zuckerman, Ezra W. “Verstehen for Sociology: Comment on Watts.” American Journal of Sociology 122, 4 (January 2017): 1272–1291 © 2017 University of Chicago
Version: Final published version
ISSN
0002-9602
1537-5390