Extended Case Method (ECM) in Social and Cultural Research

This article aims to introduce the Extended Case Method (ECM) as an approach to qualitative social research. As an approach, the ECM rooted in the ethnography approach in the anthropological tradition and developed in the sociological tradition research. With reference to Michael Buroway (1998) as a developer of ECM and some articles that used ECM as a method, this paper outlines the basic concepts of ECM, their advantages and infirmity, and the application of theories in social research by using ECM. As an extended case, there are four aspects that extend on ECM, namely intervention, processes, structuration, and reconstruction (theory). The advantage of ECM is their four extending. Rather than the infirmity of ECM rooted from their advantage, namely domination, silencing, objectification, and normalization. The use of theory in ECM was carried out from the beginning to the end of the study. Base on their characteristics, ECM very feasible to use to understanding borderless society and ambiguity of case study on research of social science in general, and ethnography especially.

Edgework, Uncertainty, and Social Character

This article proposes a novel conceptual understanding of ‘edgework’ – a term denoting the voluntary embrace of risk – by drawing on the long-standing sociological tradition of character studies. In doing so, it addresses the paradox that while first-generation research into high-risk leisure suggested that these activities provided identity-affirming escapes from bureaucratised capitalism, second-generation writings argued that edgework exists in harmony with the norms of ‘risk societies’, raising questions about its continuing appeal. Developing a new analytical perspective with which to assess these views, we argue that the former studies should be understood in the context of challenges to ‘other-directed’ characterological forms prominent within the post-War era, while the latter signal the embodiment of edgework within emergent ‘opportunity-directed’ modalities of social character. This interpretation explains the enduring attractions of edgework alongside its changed social role, and also signals its utility as a prism through which to observe broader characterological changes.

Network Tension and Innovation in Teams: Deep Success in Jazz

Prior scholarship neglected the creative potential of open and strong relationships, because—rooted in a long sociological tradition of balance theory—it assumed that strong ties are always closed, and only weak ties bridge diverse structural locations. We develop two measures of network tension: the relative frequency and the strength of strong, open triads. Our results show that in recorded jazz music–a uniquely synergistic domain of collective creativity—tension is more prevalent than expected, and it is a predictor of several success measures, including deep success, while brokerage and closure are not. We also measure the structural availability of tension to each session and show that unexpected tension (where musicians go beyond chance to bring imbalance into their bands) has an additional contribution to deep success. We discuss implications for project teams and organizations where collective innovation is crucial.

The Fate of Social Character in an Age of Uncertainty

This article develops the long-standing sociological tradition of ‘character studies’, arguing that the accelerated change and associated uncertainties central to late modern life have been accompanied by what we refer to as a new opportunity-directed form of individuality. Engaging with Sayer’s agenda-setting return to the subject, we acknowledge the ideological uses to which the promotion of this characterological form may be put, but argue that its core qualities can help suitably situated persons negotiate radical uncertainty via a reflexive, future-oriented commitment to agency. Despite the advantages of this orientation in the contemporary era, however, we conclude by suggesting that opportunity-directedness is associated with certain ‘pathologies’, involving psychological costs and social inequalities, that raise questions about its desirability and sustainability.

Max Weber’s Analysis of Plebiscitary Leadership and the Debate on Multiple Modernities

The article considers Max Weber’s model of plebiscitary leadership and historical examples of plebiscitary democracy. It is argued that there is no clear distinction between plebiscitary democracy and dictatorship inWeber’s writings. As Stefan Breuer demonstrates, such a distinction allows us to broaden the application of Weberian concepts. Plebiscitary elements can be seen in the political life of non-Western states, which have been discussed from the multiple modernities perspective. However, while that perspective develops the Weberian sociological tradition, its representatives mostly do not use the concept of plebiscitary leadership. Thus, Shmuel Eisenstadt draws primarily on Weber’s sociology of religion in his analysis of different types of modernity. Specifically, Eisenstadt considers the impact of civilizational legacies on political processes in India and Latin America. Peter Wagner discusses the relevance of Weber’s rationalization thesis and theory of capitalism rather than the concepts of Weberian political sociology. In his study of democratization in Brazil and South Africa, Wagner emphasizes the progressive character of political changes but does not consider the possibility of a reversal of these processes. The article argues that the contemporary reconstruction of Weber’s model of plebiscitary leadership can complement the analyses of democratization in non-Western societies from the multiple modernities perspective.

THE CONCEPT OF THE STRANGER IN THE SOCIOLOGICAL TRADITION

The article is devoted to the development of the concept of the stranger in sociology; the article reveals significant characteristics of the concept and discusses some theoretical issues related to its identification and the evolution of its content.

The Behavioral Economics of Pierre Bourdieu

This article builds the argument that Bourdieu’s dispositional theory of practice can help integrate the sociological tradition with three prominent strands of behavioral economics: bounded rationality, prospect theory, and time inconsistency. I make the case that the habitus provides an alternative framework to show how social and mental structure constitute one another, where cognitive tendencies toward irrationality can be either curtailed or amplified based on one’s position in the economic field and a person’s corresponding set of dispositions, ranging from more rational doxic dispositions to irrational allodoxic tendencies. Bridging economic sociology and behavioral economics, this work also bears on issues of persistent financial inequality reproduced through self-defeating patterns of economic behavior inculcated into individuals who occupy dominated positions in the social structure. Bourdieu’s thought, and in particular his conception of field+habitus, can usefully be applied to the empirical findings of behavioral economics to understand deviations from rational action as not only cognitive but also socially structured.

Memory, Ethnography and the Method of Memory

The fieldwork experience of social anthropology is mediated by memory. The memories of the informants and the researchers own memory recuperate the field partially for the audience—academic or otherwise. This article through disparate sections elaborates the method of memory in doing research. With a brief introduction to collective memory in the sociological tradition this work introduces memory ethnography. External memory—from the act of writing to mnemonic aids that accompany us in the field is ubiquitous to the extent that it has become almost an extension of oneself. The imbrications of memory-technology though reveal the fear of technology taking over the task of memory. The explosion of memory studies triggered through the study of violence is analysed through new forms of commemoration. In placing the seemingly disparate sections I attempt to look at new forms of memory practices contextualising it in and through the various artefacts that it produces.

Ideas of Literary Tradition

This introductory chapter discusses the ways in which the related notions of tradition and literary tradition have been used and analyzed. It begins by showing the complexity of the word's meanings and associations through a survey of its uses, based firmly on the Oxford English Dictionary and the work of Harry Levin. Then the chapter considers the influential literary approach to tradition in the work of the first French and English critics to exploit the term, Sainte-Beuve and T. S. Eliot. Next, the chapter describes the generally negative approach to tradition in the sociological tradition. Afterward, it discusses the historical analysis of the invention of tradition as presented in the influential collection of essays under that title edited by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (1983). Finally, it looks in some detail at the very rich account of tradition presented in Hans-Georg Gadamer's Truth and Method (1960).